I AM HUMAN! (3)
by ClockWork369
Summary: This is the main story of my series. For the summary, check out the first one.
1. Invitation

2016, years have gone by, appearing normal and calm. Yet terror thrives in this time of peace, ever since the catastrophe that occurred 18 years ago, the T-virus. Ever since the discovery of this powerful plague, many variants have been created, bringing about viral outbreaks thousand times more terrifying than the bubonic plague. But the world has adapted, military forces have been created to combat every outbreak, new and old, soldiers dying to try and save this world. Behind this, many individuals have forever been linked to these viruses, their lives ruined, fighting a constant war for peace. Some have suffered, others witness as friends and family turn to unholy creatures. It's a wonder how they continue to try and live a normal life, but word always catches on.

In Washington, a man stands by the president with focused protection. Having blonde hair and showing scars of war, he is Leon S. Kennedy, special agent for the U.S. government. He stands next to the new President of the United States, Mr. Anthony Prayer. A man in a black suit walks into the oval office and says "Mr. President, Mr. Kennedy has received something of interest."

"Why are you telling me, he's right here," he turns to face Leon, "it's for you after all."

He walks over to the man and receives an envelope with a bizarre spider-like crest sealing it. Inside is a letter that reads

" Mr. Leon S. Kennedy, you have been invited to the International B.S.A.A. award ceremony as a guest of Captain Chris Redfield to attend. Please contact this number for your answer."

"Well, what does it say?" asks the President.

"Well… it's an invitation to an award ceremony for a friend of mine."

"Well I bet that'll be fun, you're dismissed of duty for today."

"But Mr. President, Anthony, I shouldn't…"

"Calm down, what happened to the previous president was not your fault. I'll be fine, just go and enjoy, besides, not many get to be invited to a B.S.A.A. ceremony, I'm jealous myself hehe."

"...Okay, if you say so."

Leon walks out of the room and looks over the strange crest, normally it would be the B.S.A.A. symbol, strange. It's been awhile since he has seen Chris, but to be honest, he has more of a history with his sister, Claire Redfield, but he's still a good friend, he did invite him.

Somewhere else in the united states, a cemetery with beautiful trees amongst the headstones, has very little activity, all except for a single black car driving on the road path towards a mound. As the car parks, a woman walks out, wearing dark pinstripe pants and dark grey waistcoat over a white button-up sleeveless shirt, and having long, brown, and wavy hair. She walks over to a single grave with "Deborah Harper" inscribed into it. She lays a clutch of flowers in front of it, faintly saying "I miss you Deborah."

Memories of her last moments with her flash by. She's snapped out of it when she hears a voice asking "Excuse me, are you Helena Harper?"

She turns to see an elderly man dressed in a all white tuxedo. "Yes, I'm Helena Harper," she replies.

"Apologies, my name is Mr. J. E. Verden," he lets out a quick cough, "sorry. I'm a representative of a corporation known as 'Entity'."

"What can I do for you?"

"Because of… certain events… three years ago related to Derek Simmons, my company would like to ask a few questions."

"What?! What for?"

"Apologies, but after such a catastrophic event in China, we would just like to know more. My company is part of vaccine development for the B.S.A.A., nothing more, nothing less. All we ask is to know what happened during your experience."

Helena gives some thought, she had not known of Entity until now. However, she accepts. "If it's to help."

"Wonderful, but now's not the time. I came to schedule a meeting with other supervisors. We've planned to attend a B.S.A.A. awarding ceremony. If you're truly okay with this, you'll receive a personal invite, the event is tomorrow."

The man slowly turns and walks over to a white car next to Helena's. She wonders how she didn't hear it arrive. Helena was once a CIA agent, now she's a U.S. Secret Service agent, but for most of her time she lives a normal life. After seeing her sister's grave, she drives toward the city hospital. She enters the hospital and is greeted by a doctor saying "Ms. Harper, I didn't expect you to come so early. I'm glad you took the time for volunteer hours to help the children."

"Yeah, anyway to help them."

"Yes, it's a shame."

"What do you mean?"

The doctor walks Helena into a room with medical supplies. They were required to wear masks and sanitized gloves at all times. She puts them on and is taken to the other side of the hospital, where children appearing very sick are being taken to. She's escorted into a "Get Well" room for children, with some resting ill in there beds.

"What happened to them?" she asks.

"A serious flu epidemic, most children have taken ill. They'll be fine, but we don't know how long until they get better."

"Oh… that's…"

"Don't worry, they will get better, your sympathy is noted. Now, help me bring in the medicine for them."

They come back with a medicine cart and give the children small shots to help fight the flu. Helena comes up next to a small girl who says "NO, shots are scary."

"Hey hey, it's okay, this won't hurt."

"NO."

"... Okay, if you count to ten with your eyes closed, I won't give it to you."

The girl closes her eyes and counts, while Helena gives her the shot and finishes before the girl is done counting.

Hours go by, night comes, Helena says goodbye to the doctor and thanks him for the time helping the children. But as she drives home, she realizes something. "Oh crap, I left my phone there, hope it isn't too late." Unfortunately, visiting hours were over, and with no injury or anything, she couldn't go in. Helena decides to wait until the next day to get her phone back.

As midnight comes, the children lay asleep in their beds, but one of them wakes up to the sound of clicking noises. The girl that Helena talked to looks at a boy across from her, playing on a small phone. "What's that?" she asked.

"It's a grown up's phone, look, it's a camera," he says, pointing the camera lense at her face and flashing it. "Hey, stop?!" she saya.

"Or what?" he replies sarcastically, but he notices her attention turned to the window. He looks to see a figure trying to open it. The two immediately hide under the covers as the figure silently jumps through the window, walking to the door. The boy turns on the video player and records the figure. As it was about to pass him, he sneezes and drops the phone. The figure swiftly turns to him, showing to have glowing, alien looking eyes. The boy tries to hide under the cover, his eyes peeking at the apparent inhuman figure. The girl gives a cough, the figure turns to her, he appears to notice she and the other children are sick. "Are you the boogeyman?" she says curiously. He backs away and extends his hand to her, enveloping her in the shadow of it.


	2. The Figure

The next morning, Helena, tired and drowsy, drives to the hospital to retrieve her phone. However, as she comes into view of it, she sees police cars and tape around the entrance. Given instant energy from the worrying situation, she parks to the side and heads to the entrance. A cop blocks her path saying "Sorry, no one is allowed…" but stops as she showed her secret service agent badge. He retracts his words and lets her through. Helena scouts around, she sees doctors unconscious and others to the side. She walks over to see the doctor from yesterday, resting in a chair. "What happened?" she asks.

"Helena, why are you here, and how are you in here?"

"I'll explain later, I want to know what happened."

"... Okay, follow me."

He escorts her to the same place from yesterday, she instantly worries if any of the children were hurt. She looks at the door and asks "Did… did something happen to…?"

"Well… look for yourself," the doctor opens the door.

Helena hurries in, but is shocked to see they are all find, not just find, all healthy. Doctors huddle around the surprisingly active children, trying to find out what could have caused this. One of them walks over to Helena and says "Here, sorry I took it" while giving back her phone. "My phone? Wait," she says, seeing a new video in it. She plays it and is shocked to see what was on it. She rushes out of the building, at the same time, calling a number under the name "Leon".

It rings, soon being answered, "Hello, Leon?!" she says in a hurry.  
"Helena, what's wrong?"

"Meet me at this address, NOW, it's urgent!"

"I'm sorry, really, but I'm tied up, I need to get my work finished, and at night I'll be at the B.S.A.A. ceremony, sorry."

Helena thinks this over and says "Okay, I'll meet you there, got it?"

She hangs up and pulls out the invite given to her by Verden. She sighs in frustration, gets in her car, and hurries home to prepare.

The ceremony was planned to be held on a cruise ship by the coast. The arrival time was to be in the evening, but from the number of people, it took two hours before it left the dock with all guests. Most awaited the ceremony to begin in an hour on the Dining level. While most people mingled, one person just leaned against the wall, Leon, in a simple tuxedo. He looks out towards the crowd and notices a familiar face, Helena. "Over here," he calls over, she rushes over, he continues "Helena, it's great to…"

"Sorry, but there's no time, there's trouble."

Leon looks around and whispers "What kind?"

"Look for yourself," she replies, leading him to the outside towards the front of the ship. As they stand under the night sky, she plays the video of the figure that broke into the hospital. It was too dark to make out any details. Leon stands silent until the video stopped. "What the hell is that?"

"I don't know, but all I know is someone, or something, broke in and took some medical drugs, and did something to the kids."

"What?!"

"That's the strange thing, last night, they were sick with a serious flu. The next day, nothing, healthy and strong."

Leon stands confused and worried. It's obvious that the figure wasn't human, but nothing like this has happened before, they don't even know if it's a viral creature or not. Leon says "Okay, I'll contact Hunnigan to dispatch a team to find any leads, along with a pick up boat. Chris will understand."

Suddenly, they stand stunned at the sound of "Well hello Helena, who's your friend?"

They turn to see an elderly man, Leon didn't know him, but Helena recognizes him, Mr. Verden. "Helena, I hope you weren't planning on jumping off haha, were are on a boat. But please, let's begin our conversation so you can relax for the rest of the ceremony."

Helena give Leon a look that said "I'll explain later, go" and walks back to the dining level. But as Leon prepared to contact Hunnigan, he notices something strange at the top of the cruise ship. He sees something hopping around, almost appearing to follow Helena and Verden. He decides to stay and investigate. He heads to his guest room to retrieve a handgun from his bag, always be prepared.

Leon manages to spot the anomaly again, near the engine section of the cruise ship. The area was giant, pipes all along the walls, narrow cross sections in between, and steam in the atmosphere. He gives a quick thought before entering the area and locking the door behind him. As the metal sound of the closing door echoed, something is heard moving away on the walkways above. Leon climbs up a nearby ladder, he stopped and looked around when he got to the top before continuing. Most of the noises in the area come from the pipes all over, meaning he'll have to rely on sight to find the anomaly.

Back on the dining level, everyone focuses on the room stage, including Verden and Helena. A man wearing an army uniform and holding a small black box begins. "Good afternoon. As you all know, we are here to honor an amazing captain, with the courage and spirit to help protect our world from Bioterrorism. His whole life has been dedicated to fight off these attacks, no matter how small or large, and no matter the odds. Now, ladies and gentleman, Captain Chris Redfield."

Chris comes out from behind the curtains suspended in the back, baring battle scars on his face gained over the years. The entire room fills with the applause of cheering and clapping, dying down after a minute. The man awards Chris with a gold-plated medal of honor. He comes to the microphone and says "It's an honor to receive this award, but a true reward will be the end of this viral war. I've lost too many allies in this, friends and family.. But no matter the challenge, I will continue to fight, in hopes of a new world, where these viruses never existed. Thank you."

He heads off stage while the cheers explode. As he does, he hears a voice say "CHRIS, CHRIS!"

He looks to see it's Helena. "Oh, hello, you're Helena Harper right? It's nice to officially meet you, you know, without a viral outbreak happening."

"Yes, but it's urgent."

"What's wrong?"

"It's Leon, I think he's…"

"LEON! What's wrong?! Is he hurt?!"

"No, but I saw him following something on the deck, he might be in trouble."

Chris begins to worry, not just for Leon, but the risk of B.O.W.s on the ship. He heads straight for his room, Helena tries to follow, but is stopped by Verden.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

"Mr. Verden, I need to help my friends."

"If he's going and there's trouble, wouldn't it be better for you to stay, in case something happens in here?"

"Well… uh… yeah, you're right." She looks towards Chris some feet away, "CHRIS, I'll stay here in case something happens."

He looks back and gives a thumbs up before continuing.

Leon continues his search, finding a slime trail leading to an engine room, the pipes and steam going as fast as possible to maintain the ship's movement. He hears crashing noises around him, it becomes clear he's not alone. Noises go off all around him. He stays primed and ready, checking every corner and section, not dropping his guard. He hears thumping noises behind him. In an instant, he turns and prepares to shoot, only to see nothing there. Unknown to him, a figure appears above him, lowering itself down with one hand from the tops of the pipe walls. It's feet touch the ground, suddenly, and Leon turns and fires. It dodges and tackles him a few yards away, causing him to drop his gun. The creature walks towards him. Leon regains his balance and runs for his gun. He picks it up and aims for the creature, only to see it gone.

He looks up and to the side for it, not realizing it's right behind him. As he turns, the creature grabs him by the throat and lifts him up while strangling him. Leon struggles for life, landing a kick to its face, but it doesn't flinch. He drops his gun and tries to release its grip, with no success. He was about to pass out, when he suddenly falls to the ground, the creature releasing its grip and started walking away, leaving Leon gasping for air. Leon picks up his gun and fires at it, but the bullets go right through it. The creature turns back, no enraged. "Well, that's a new trick," he says, running off with the creature following behind.

Chris retrieves his handgun and looks for Leon, checking each room. Suddenly, he hears ringing noises coming from the engine room, he races to the door. He struggles to open it, soon deciding to shoot the lock and kick down the door. He sees Leon on the top level and shouts. "LEON!"

Leon looks down, only to be pulled back by the creature. It picks him up by the face and pins him to the pipes. With its other hand, it rips away one of the pipes and bends it around Leon, locking him to the wall. As he struggles, Chris races to the top and shoots at the creature's head, but only succeeds to piss it off. It charges for him. Chris tries to stop his charge, only to be lifted by the head and over, crashing to the ground. It stomps on his hand, he screams in pain as he drops his gun. The creature picks it up and crushes it in his palm.

Leon manages to wriggle out of the trap and shoots at the creature, one of the bullets miss and hits a nearby pipe. Steam shoots out of the pipe into the creature's face. It screams in pain as it runs off towards the door. Leon kneels down to Chris and says "Chris, are you alright?!"

"Been better. Let's go," he replies, reaching for his knife.

"Go back to the dining level," Leon says, "warn everyone and get to the lifeboats."

"Okay."

Chris makes it back to the dining level and runs to the mic saying "Everyone, evacuate, a hostile B.O.W. is on the ship, evacuate!"

With that, everyone rushes for the doors, any other soldiers take action and try to control the panic. Chris looks around for Helena, but doesn't see her leaving with Verden and his large bodyguards. They head to the back of the ship. "What are you doing," says Helena, "the lifeboats are to the sides."

He doesn't answer and stands by the railings. Without warning, grapple hooks launch from the side and hook onto the rails. Helena looks over the side to see an awaiting boat. Verden finally replies, "Helena, this is an emergency, and we are important people. It would be better to leave with more 'protection'. Come with me."

She hesitates, but feels one of the bodyguards pick her up and ripples down on the ropes, the other carrying Verden. They land on the small boat as it speeds off. Helena regains her balance and says "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Ms. Harper, I'm just making sure you're safe so we can talk and…"

"My friends are on that ship and you care about the damn talk, what the hell?!"

He lets off a sigh. "Look, we'll deal with this when we make it to shore, okay?"

"NO! Explain yourself, what do you want?"

He tries to answer, but all focus turns above Helena. She looks up to see the creature on top of the boat. The guards pull out guns, but the creature shoots out spikes that knock them out of the moving boat. It jumps down and walks over to Verden, pushing Helena to the ground. Verden appears terrified, but his eyes show he knows what the creature is, but sees Helena charge at the creature. It turns and grabs her by the wrists, it prepares to strike, but stops. As she struggles, it sniffs her skin. Helena frees herself and spin kicks the creature in the face, only to be thrown down. Before she knew it, the creature's foot hovers over her as it came down, knocking her unconscious.


	3. Reunion of a Lifetime

Everything is dark for a moment, Helena awakens from her subconscious. She jerks up in surprise and looks around. She realizes she's on a rocky beach, the fog making it difficult to see. "...Hello!" she yells, only to hear her echoes bounce back, she decides to search for help. With her clothes torn in some places, along with no weapons, she cautiously tries to look around, but the fog make it difficult to see. Suddenly, she trips on a large piece of metal. She stands up to find a boat wreck, Verden's boat. Helena gazes at the boat, she sees a gun in the rocky ground and pulls it out. She checks the clip and continues searching, coming upon a raise in the ground. She climbs up onto the grassy ground and sees trees of different kinds, but something else catches her attention, a light in the distance.

She walks along a path, but it's strange, no sign of any people, but the path is well made, no plants growing on it. The light grows stronger, and the atmosphere grows creepier, the trees show sign of care and harvest. _"_ _Does someone live here, or…"_ she thinks, but stops at the sight of a enormous mansion. It stands by a rocky edge, its condition shows that someone lives in it, she races to the door. Unknown to her, a figure stares out from one of the windows before retreating. She knocks on the giant doors, but they slowly swing open.

Helena slowly walks in saying "Hello, anyone here. Please, I need help," but only receives echoes. She walks up the stairs and looks around, viewing all the rooms, unknown to the figure following her. Every room she checked were either storage or a community of spare bedrooms. She wonders how a house made for a village could be so empty, and what happened to the people?

Suddenly, she feels something, an unsettling presence behind her. She turns on a dime, but sees nothing, except for an opened door she closed earlier. Her heartbeat races as she moves closer to the door, closer to the handle. Without warning, a slimy hand launches out of the door opening and grabs Helena's hand. She screams in shock and shoots at it. The hand withdraws as she slams the door, blocking it as whatever was inside tried to open it.

It struggles to force the door open. Suddenly, the struggling stops, only to continue with it smashing its arm through the door. Helena takes off running as the creature smashes the door to pieces and regains balance. The darkness conceals its appearance, but its eyes outline with a color darker than black. It searches around for her, not noticing her sneaking into one of the rooms. She closes the door silently and backs away, aiming her gun at the door. Amongst the sound of her heart racing, she can hear breathing behind her, a soft, calming kind. She turns to see someone in the bed, next to her, a small crib made of different kinds of wood. The sudden noises in the room disturb the person, who is seen to be a woman. "Excuse me, we have to go, there's something out…," Helena couldn't finish her warning. The woman turns on a nearby lamp, her appearance becomes clear. She is just as shock to see Helena, then she says something that brought Helena to the limit, "Sister… Helena," and suddenly, Helena faints.

Hours pass, Helena finally awakens from her coma. She finds herself in a bed in a small room. She looks around and sees items brought to her set on a drawer next to her. New clothes, a glass of water, and for some reason, a small orange rock. Suddenly, the door creaks open. Helena tries reaching for her gun, but can't find it. She hears something run to her and hide at the foot of her bed. She curls up away from the end, a small figure crawls under the sheets to her. She slowly removes the covers, at the last second, whipping it off in a flash. Her nervousness turns to confusion as she sees it's only a small girl, no more than 3 at most. As she takes a closer look, it's obvious it's not a normal child. She has no clothes, but strange clay colored growths over her body. Her skin looks normal, but the tips of her knuckles end with three small nubs, along with bizarre curls on her back, one appearing white like bone. But the most striking feature, under her short, brown, and rounded hair, are eyes like the figures, appearing grey in color.

Helena doesn't feel threatened, it isn't human, yet she only appears curious of someone new as any child would. She crawls to her like a cat, sniffing her skin before ending up hugging her left leg. Helena becomes more confused than she ever has, soon turning her focus to the opening door. Her eyes widen at the figure who comes in, her thought dead, now mutated, sister, Deborah. Helena moves the girl away and slowly gets out of bed, walking to her sister. She tries to figure out if it's real or not, until Deborah says "Yes, it's me Helena."

With that, Helena breaks down crying, embracing her sister, who cries as well, in a sad hug. "I… I thought… I thought I lost you," Helena sobs.

"I know… I know."

They kneel to the floor, the hug lasts for minutes until they finally release, Helena tries to control herself and wipes away the tears. The small child walks over to the two. "Mama, why you crying?" she says to Deborah. Helena becomes shocked at what the girl calls Deborah, Mama. Deborah stands and helps her sister up, "Listen, I know you have questions miles long, I really want to explain, but I need to take care of some things first. Just wait here and I'll be back, okay?" Helena slowly nods while Deborah places a small kiss on her cheek. She walks out, leaving Helena sad and happy, the small girl turns to her. "Excuse me, why mama hug you?"

Helena tries to gather the fact the girl might truly be her niece. "Well… let's start with names, I'm Helena, and you are?"

"Maya."

"Okay Maya, well, to answer your question, I'm your… mom's… sister."

"Sister? Are you mine?"

"No, a sister to your parents is called an aunt, and you're my niece."

Maya looks to the ground a while before hugging Helena's leg again, saying "Aunty!"

Helena looks at her again, seeing if she really is some kind of mutant, the cutest one she has ever seen to be honest. Suddenly, the door opens, Helena looks up to see a tall figure, the same one who attacked her. She tries to protect Maya, but she runs to the figure and says "Daddy, Daddy, it's my aunty, see?!"

He looks to Helena for a second, "Maya, go find your brother please," he says to Maya. As she leaves, he kneels down in front of a confused Helena, "So… you're my sister-in-law then?"

"WAIT, you're… my sister's…"

"Husband, yes, please forgive me for my actions."

"Why did you attack me?"

"You must understand, I was only protecting my family, you would do the same, wouldn't you?"

Helena soon recalls memories of her protecting her sister, times where she took extreme actions. "... Yes, I would. I'm sorry, it's just…," she struggles to understand what's happening now.

"Thank you for your forgiveness, my name is Dylon, and this is my home."

"Where's my sister?"

"Well… let me show you."

She follows Dylon to one of the many rooms, a light comes out of one of them. She moves ahead of him and goes in, only to see Deborah breast feeding a small baby. She closes the door a fast as possible. "Should've waited, Dimitri is very young, just fifteen days old, needing lots of care," Dylon says to a embarrassed Helena.

She waits until Deborah opens the door and lets them in. Inside is a nursery for Dimitri, Deborah lets Helena see him. He was very small, with rock-like jewels resting on his forehead, only three, one in the center and two to the side. His very small tuft of thin, blue hair sits on the top of his head, but when Helena feels it, it's more fleshy and sharp. His most striking feature were his light-blue eyes, almost like Dylon's. All and all, he looks normal.

Around her are other small children, one with slightly red skin and blonde hair, a lot like Leon's, under basic clothes. Next to him, Maya, who is slightly shorter than him. And next to her, a small boy, no more than two, wearing child-sized cargo shorts and no shirt or shoes, his hair sticks up like a single spike and brown eyes, same shape as Dylon's too. They look at Helena. Maya and the two year old run to her saying "Aunty!" but the other hides behind Dylon. The two year old says while pointing at himself "Raph."

Helena looks to the one hiding behind Dylon. "Sorry," he says, "Theo can be very shy," he looks down at Theo, "Theo, please say hi to your aunt."

He slowly walks to her with a worried face, extending his hand to her. Helena feels bad that he's so shy, she touches his hand and says "Don't worry, we're family, aren't we?"

He quietly and slowly replies "Y-yes."

The children run around, chasing each other. Deborah sits and holds Dimitri in her arms, Dylon leans against the wall, and Helena in between them. "Okay, let's start at the beginning."

Deborah starts, "Well, sometime after our… you know, I was left there, like an animal. But Dylon found me and saved me, helping me get my memories back. After that we spent some time in the area, helping each other, until 'they' found us."

"Who's they?" Helena asks.

Dylon answers, "The ones who created me, they were searching for specimens to use, so we hijacked one of their boats and escaped, ending up somewhere in China for a short time."

Deborah continues, "An outbreak claimed many lives. We managed to find a man named Scott who helped us escape, but 'they' destroyed our ship or something, we don't know what happened when our ship crashed."

Dylon finishes, "Once we finally could settle, well…"

He gives a serious look to Deborah and said "Listen, your sister is the most beautiful being I've ever seen, I couldn't live without her. We wanted to settle in a home, no worries, no one after us, be together."

Helena can see he's honest, he truly sees beauty in her sister, even in her state. Another thought soon came. "Wait… you were the one who attacked the cruise!?"

Deborah lookz in concern, Dylon sighs and explains. "I hurt no one, everyone came out safe, but the man you were with is one of 'them', the ones after us."

Helena realizes how stupid she was to trust Verden, he only wanted her, possibly knowing she was Deborah's sister and to be used as bait. Helena sulks in anger, Deborah says "Listen, you're safe here, family must stick together, right?"

Helena looks to her and sees the sister she always knew, the kind, high spirited, and only family she had before the outbreak. She embraces her, the children look on with confusion, "Daddy, is something wrong?" Maya asks.  
"No Maya, everything is fine."

The night soon comes to an end, the morning sun begins to rise. Helena awakes from a much needed rest. She looks to the drawer next to her to see breakfast made for her, eggs and toast with a side of fruit, along with another orange rock. She looks down to see Maya sleeping on the floor with a pillow and small blanket. "Maya, what are you doing here?" Helena asks, waking her up.

Maya lets out a yawn. "I wanted to see you, but I fell asleep. Oh, did you get my present?"

"Present?"

"The rock."

"Oh, it's a painted rock, that's a very nice gift.'

'What's paint?"

Helena sees she didn't know what paint was and looks at the rock closer. It was actually an orange rock, no paint. "Where did you get this?" Helena asks.

"Out there."

Maya points out the window towards the forest. It occurs to Helena that this place wasn't normal, who knows what's out there. She decides to figure that out later, right now she feels her stomach growl, so she digs in. In the dining room, Dylon and Deborah enjoy a platter of meat, it's the only thing they enjoy eating, but the children eat a variety of food. Dimitri is too young for normal baby food, so he breastfeeds, Theo enjoys a platter of different fruits and vegetables, and Raph enjoys a platter of solid foods, like nuts and crackers. Maya arrives for breakfast, "Maya, sweetie, where were you?" Deborah asks.

"Seeing aunty, she awake."

"Okay, but please don't disturb her, okay?"

"Okay."

Deborah leaves the table and returns with a plate of fruits with eggs and bacon. Dylon looks to Deborah and asks "So… do you think they'll still be after her?"

"I don't know, she'll stay with us until then."

"Listen, it's nothing personal, but what if someone else comes looking for her?"

"Don't worry, nothing can get on this island, you said it yourself."

"...Yeah, yeah you're right, thanks to the guardian. By the way, do you think she should meet the others?"

"It would be rude not to, I'll see if they'll be back soon, right now she can meet our guest."


	4. The Search

Somewhere in the remote parts of the United States, a military base stands, surrounded by soldiers of all ranks. A jeep pulls up in front, Leon and Chris exit it and walk into the facility, up to one of the many planning rooms of the base. They review footage of the unknown entity that disappeared from the cruise ship. "Damn, this new form of B.O.W. is powerful" exclaims Chris.

"Yeah," Leon replies, "the worst part is Helena disappeared too, and we can't track her. Do you think that creature took her?"

"Maybe, but we'll get to the bottom of this."

Suddenly, they were taken by surprise by a familiar voice. "Actually, Mr. Redfield, we'll take care of it from here."

They turn to see Ingrid Hunnigan, agent of the F.O.S., and screen to screen partner of Leon. "Hunnigan, you're here… but…," Leon was surprised. It was rare for him to see her in the flesh.

"Good to see you too."  
He gives a quick cough. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you two are needed in Europe to stop a viral terrorist attack. And as for me, I have been given a chance in the field. I've developed a prototype DNA tracker, but it needs constant adjustments and I'm the only one who knows how it works, so I'm required to come, along with B.S.A.A. escorts."

"Wait, why do I need to go?" Leon asks.

"Well, it's not really for any national reasons, but Ada Wong was sited in the area. I thought you would take the opportunity."

Leon is taken aback, he and Ada Wong have always been intertwined, always encountering each other on their missions, she always disappearing by the end of it all. Hunnigan hopes he could stop her, long enough to be captured. She isn't necessarily on their side, so her capture could prove vital. "Okay, I'll go," replies.

Leon and Chris head off to Europe, while Hunnigan begins her field mission. Unknown to them all, a small bug flies around in the room, a robotic fly. A video feed records the entire conversation and is being viewed in an unknown area by an unknown enemy. A man, disguised in the dark, says in a blurred voice "Hmhm, we can't have them snooping around," he holds down on a red button and continues, "lure the tyrant specimen to the recently active site. We may not have control, but he'll itch for a fight."

Within an unknown forest, a group of soldiers receive orders and circle around a camp in an open field. One of them says "We received new orders, lure the big guy towards the contact point."

"Roger," one of them replies.

In the mansion of the mysterious island, Helena is taken to the higher level rooms, Deborah takes her to one with music playing. She opens the door and Helena walks in to see a girl sitting in a chair, facing the window. She turns to show her haphazardly messed up brown hair, the left side of her face is bandaged over, she wears a white gown, no other features shown. "Helena, meet Lisa Trevor," says Deborah.

Helena walks over to the girl, about 20, and says "Hello."

She doesn't reply. Deborah says "She is someone special. You see, from what we could tell, the ones who created Dylon also harvested anyone who showed radical mutation to the viruses, whether dead or alive. They found ways to bring them back, Lisa's case was she died in an explosion. They brought her back, but much younger than she really is."

"What do you mean?" Helena asks.

"Well… from what Dylon could recall, they can produce new bodies for them, much younger though. He thinks it's so they would have more control with less developed specimens."

"Why is she here?" Helena asks.

"...Dylon found the files in the lab on this island, they contain all records of those they experimented on. He treats this place as a safe haven for them and leaves in search for them, to give them a home. Lisa is one of many."

"You mean… there's more of… of…"

"Dylon prefers the term 'Bio Sentients', anyone who isn't or… no longer human. For us and all others, this is home."

Helena couldn't believe what she's hearing, others who have suffered, but now helped. She asks "Can I speak to Dylon?"

"Sure."

Dylon stands in a large room, the walls were riddled with shelves holding plants, herbs, all being fed liquids he's making from medicine. Helena walks in and marvels at the plants, she asks "W-what is this?"

"Herbs, I use medicine to make liquids to feed the plant's , a way to incorporate the medicines healing properties, to levels beyond simple poison treatment, but the potential to heal wounds of devastating damage."

"Amazing, wait, you were the one at the hospital."

"Yes?"

"What did you do to the kids."

"I couldn't stand to see them suffer, so I tested my herbs on them, did it work?"

"Yeah, it's amazing, but I came here to ask you something."

She is amazed by what he was doing. However, this brings up an important question, why?

"...Dylon, I would like to know… what do you want?"

He sets down the plants and liquids, he turns to her and gives off a sigh. "I want to help my kind, heal them, protect them from this… viral war. People either see them as monsters, or worse,... just something to experiment on. I want a place where 'we' can live as we want, no Entity, no B.S… whatever, just… live normally. Some I rescued help me, like Scott."

"I heard of him from your story, what happened to him."

" I had no choice, he was near death from the arrival here. I had to infect him so he could live. I didn't want to be responsible for his death, and I try to help him through this."

Helena understands what he means, she says "... So, do you hate humans, for what they did to you. You also know not all deserve your anger, so you and my sister just want to be left alone. If it wasn't for my sister, I would be…"

"Stop, I rather not think about that. I couldn't live with myself if I hurt you, and worse, Deborah."

"...I forgive you, but how the world is now, well… what will you do if they find this place, would you...?" She finds it too difficult to finish that thought.

"...Yes, if it meant protecting my family and others from the world's hatred of the virus, so be it."

Helena waits before asking."One more thing."

"Yes?"

"What did you mean by… 'guardian?'"

"So you heard. Truth be told, we only call it that because it only lets 'us' pass. I'm not sure though, why they made it."

She leaves the room and stands by the window. She looks out to the water, what could be out there?


	5. He Will Destroy You

Europe, one of it's eastern countries, the calming sky turns to smoke as a battle takes place. Soldiers fight off powerful creatures and J'avo, people who lose all sense of control with the C-virus. This virus has proven to be the most powerful, its mutagenic effects creating creatures of unknown terror in a flash, proving too difficult for the B.S.A.A. forces. Napad,armored monsters, tackle and crush all in their way, a jeep comes rushing by as a man with a mounted turret on top takes fire at them, taking them down. The jeep stops and Chris exits it, firing the second he gets out to hold off the mutated forces. He speaks into his ear piece. "Alpha team leader Chris Redfield, the enemy forces are too strong here, we need an air strike to hold them off for evac."

"Copy that," a voice replies, "draw back your men so they don't get caught in the crossfire."

In a flash, jets come flying in and bomb the area, destroying enemy forces left and right, Chris's team retreat.

Farther away from the violence, Leon sneaks around the area in search of Ada Wong. Unknown to him, she watches him with a sniper scope in the opposite direction. "Hm, Leon, when will you understand. You don't find me, I find you," she says in a sly voice before returning to her mission. She wears a skin tight rubber outfit, a red collar shirt and a belt of amazing weapons, especially a crossbow. She uses a specialized grapple gun to swing from rooftop to rooftop, avoiding any rogue creatures in site. It is unknown about who she works for, what's their goal, or even her true name, a first class + agent. She enters a seemingly abandoned brick building and calls someone on her glass-like prism. She speaks to someone on it. "...Yes… not yet… well I've ran into some minor detours, but don't worry, the lost samples will be recovered."

As she continues, she notices bodies of soldiers, but not of B.S.A.A. or the terrorists, their wounds appear to be blunt, considering limbs are ripped off with few cuts. Suddenly, the sounds of a struggle are heard below, she goes down and investigates. The sounds stop, but when she arrives down stairs, she finds a man hung by his neck by rope. She sees he's dead and looks around for whoever did this. Suddenly, more noises appear from in the kitchen. She looks to see a large man, stabbing another unknown soldier with a machete.

She looks at the man, but her movement makes the floor creak, which was enough for him to realize her presence. He slowly rises, showing his immense height as he towers over Ada. "Sorry crazy, but I'll have to put you down," she says, pulling out her machine pistol and unloading on him with fifty bullets. A slight shock appears in her eyes for a second as the man remains standing and turns to her. She sees his face, covered by a beat up hockey mask, but the anger in his eyes tell it all. He charges at her, she dodges, and he ends up bashing down the brick wall like it was nothing.

She aims her crossbow for his heart and hits, but he still lives, and pulls it out, he says in a deep, pissed off voice "Okay, now I'm mad."

He charges for her again, Ada side steps and runs, but he nicks her shoulder with the machete. She uses the grapple gun and flies out of there through the opening he made. She stops and rests in the middle of the street, but as soon as she realizes it, he comes out of nowhere and grabs her by the neck. He slowly begins to lift her off the ground saying "You think it would be that easy?"

Ada struggles to reply "a little" before grabbing her handgun and shooting him in the eye. He releases her and staggers back, but soon returns focus to her like it didn't happen. He unsheathes his machete and starts swinging. Ada dodges each swing, but struggles to keep up with his surprising speed. He stops and sees her running out of breath, Ada looks behind him and grins. He looks in confusion, not realizing the group of J'avo gathering behind him. They take aim and fire, but he turns on a dime and mutilates them, hacking them in half, smashing their faces into the walls, and grabbing one by the leg and swinging him like a ragdoll. In five seconds, he takes down a dozen of them before turning back. "Now, you."

Leon continues his search, he goes as far as on the edges of the fighting, he begins to back up. The sound of rocks being smashed calls his attention. He heads down an alleyway and watches as a giant tries to catch Ada. He takes aim for the head and fires. The bullet hits his ear dead center, but the only response the giant man gives is a death stare and charges. Leon is caught off guard as he's tackled back and goes flying. The man angles his machete to stab him in the chest. Ada uses her grapple gun to swing right to the side and grabs Leon, just as the machete hits the ground. They land on top of one of the buildings, Ada looks to the ground, only to find the man gone.

Leon regains his footing, "Ada," he says, "who or what the hell was that?!"

"To be honest, no idea… but we should hurry."

Leon gives a quick thought before following Ada out of the area. They head closer and closer to the fighting ground, seeing dead J'avos disintegrate and bullet casings littering the ground. They head to one of the ruined buildings for cover, inside, Chris also takes shelter, he turns in shock to see them. "Leon, Ada?!" he says.

"I'll explain later, right now we gotta get outta here," Leon replies.

"But… why?"

Before he could answer, one of the buildings catch fire, a figure can be seen behind one of the windows in flames. The wall is soon bashed down, and the man, covered in flames, comes out. Both sides are stunned to see this, only to be hacked to pieces by his now flaming machete. Hundreds of bullets hit him, but he just keeps hacking and slashing, like an undead warrior. Chris stares on in horror before sounding an immediate retreat. The man turns and charges for the building, all three of them run out as he causes the building to collapse, blocking off any escape.

As the smoke clears, the group sees the rubble start to move, they take aim as the man bursts out of it, his clothes riddled with bullet holes, yet he's shows no pain. As his body smokes, he turns to each of them slowly, to Chris, then Ada, and finally, Leon, each given a death stare. Chris takes the chance and rushes him, but the man turns back and dodges as Chris rushes by. In a split second, he grabs him by the back by his armored vest and uses his momentum to fling him far off. He crashes against one of the standing buildings. "Stay out of it," the large man says to Chris before turning back to the others.

"Okay, who are you, if you don't mind?" Ada asks.

"The name's Ruven, and you've dug your graves."

"Yeah, let me guess, I walk in on something that's none of my business?"

"Yes, now…"

In a flash, he swings his arm towards Ada, a thin shard of glass comes flying as fast as a bullet, hitting Ada in her right eye, she screams in pain. Leon takes aim and shoots five rounds to Ruven's heart, yet he still stands. "When will you fools get it," Ruven says, "I can't die, especially not such a pathetic weapon. Guns are for wimps, up close and personal is always better."

"How about this?" says Chris as he throws a flash grenade at him. The flash stuns him, long enough for them to get away. Chris takes the lead and Leon helps Ada as they follow. In the distance, a B.S.A.A. vehicle is seen, Chris calls to them. They drive towards them and let them in. Ruven is seen in the distance, he pulls out an axe and throws it at them. Before they drive off, the axe breaks the window and hits a soldier in the front seat in the head, the driver curses as he drives off, leaving Ruven in anger.

After about an hour, the vehicle arrives to the B.S.A.A. base camp, Leon takes Ada to the medical tent while Chris helps the driver take the body out. Chris looks in pain, knowing so many of his men fell to the monster known as Ruven. Leon lays Ada on the bed as medics tend to her wound, removing glass and bandaging up the side of her face to help it heal. She passed out during the drive to base camp, so Leon will have to wait for her to awake before he could get answers. Chris enters the tent speaks with him. "Leon, what happened?"

"I found Ada fighting him, but even she couldn't stop him. What ever he is, we'll need more than guns to at least stop him."

"Yeah, I just hope we can hold out if he somehow finds us."

In the distance, Ruven stands on top of a mound, out of their sight. He grips his machete and says "Your mine."


	6. New and Old Friends

Night falls over the land, Helena becomes familiar with the mansion, seeing each room, soon coming upon one with video cameras. She inspects each camera, finding labels on each of them, one saying "Our New Family". Helena hears someone else come in, she turns to see Deborah. "It's a memory room," she says, "you know, videos, photos, mostly videos. We found the cameras and Dylon managed to fix them."

"What's this one?" Helena asks.

"I'll show you."

Deborah takes the camera and connects it to a t.v. in the room, she turns it on and the screen flashes to a somewhat static video but almost perfect. The image begins shaky, someone's breathing can be heard in the background, nothing but trees and green in the picture. It soon changes to an open area, only short grass is seen. In the center, a sapling of some tree, and Dylon resting right beside it. The breathing soon turn to small chuckles, Deborah's voice is heard saying "Okay, go to your daddy."

The image goes to the ground to reveal maya and Theo, much younger, standing by Deborah's legs. Maya goes running on all fours to her dad, Theo stays by Deborah. She moves closer, the camera inches from Dylon's face, and Maya crawls all over his chest like a dog. Soon, his sleeping face springs to life as he surprises her, knocking her back and causing her to drop the camera. The image lays sideways as Dylon plants kisses on his wife, she is revealed to be wearing an all white gown, having no fancy patterns, her belly shows bulging of growing life, waiting to take its first breaths, and her other children running around them.

Deborah disconnects the camera, as she puts it down, she notices the tears coming from Helena, she goes over and embraces her. Deborah moves away a little and says "Helena, I know you're hurting, seeing what happened to me. But Dylon saved me, he's like the other half of my heart. If he ever left one day and never come back, I would be destroyed."

"I'm fine," replies Helena, "all that matters is that you're happy, that's enough for me."

A few miles out to see, a large speed boat comes closer and closer to the island, the B.S.A.A. symbol on the side. A bizarre antenna protrudes from the top of it. Inside, Hunnigan works over a laptop in a briefcase with a type of scanning sonar on the screen. "2.5 miles and closing, were almost to the coordinates," she says.

"Ms. Hunnigan," asks one of the soldiers with her, "we should be seeing land by now, but there's nothing."

"Just a little further, 2 miles and closing."

Dylon stands on the rocky shore, he can see the boat past the fog, the look of grief appears. Inside the house, objects start to shake, like an earthquake steadily growing. "Oh no," Deborah says.

"W-what's wrong?" Helena asks.

"Go find Dylon, I'll watch the kids."

With that, Helena comes running out Already, she sees Dylon by the shore as he stares out to sea. The quake grows, Helena comes stumbling down saying "DYLON, WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

He gives no reply, Helena realizes he's watching a boat come closer.

Suddenly, the soldiers and Hunnigan begin to hear low but loud moaning from under the boat, everything else appears dead quiet. With no warning, the fog appears and blocks the view, but Helena can see, in shock, a terrifying shadow arise from the deep and destroys the boat, like a mighty tentacle of a kraken. Without warning, Dylon runs to Helena and moves her out of the way as parts of the boat crash to the shore from the force of the unknown entity, which has disappeared by now.

Helena looks to Dylon and yells "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!"

"I… didn't do anything."

"What was that then?"

"You don't want to know."

"No… I want to…"

She realizes that was "the guardian," the creature. She couldn't have guest its destructive power, what it was capable of. The chilling thought was that wasn't even it ,only a single limb, larger than anything she's , she sees movement from the wreck. She races over to the moans of someone, Hunnigan. Helena bends down and moves the debris away, "HUNNIGAN?! Hunnigan, are you alright?!" she says.

"You know this woman?" Dylon asks.

"YES! And she needs help."

Dylon picks Hunnigan up over his shoulder as he races back to the mansion. Deborah sees what has happened, her three oldest children next to her, Dimitri in her arms.

"Kids, go to your rooms and stay there."

They go without hesitation, Dylon comes through the front door and heads to his medical room. He gently places her on an observation table and grabs some unknown liquids from his shelves. Helena peaks in, looking towards Hunnigan as Dylon hurrys. He places the liquids in a canister, screws on a nozzle with a breather attachment on the end, and shakes it up. he places the breather over Hunnigan's nose and mouth and sprays.

Helena paces back and forth for about ten minutes before hearing Hunnigan awaken. She sees her sitting up, disoriented and tired, but okay. "HUNNIGAN, I'm glad you're alright!" she says as she hugs her. "What happened?" Hunnigan groans in pain.

"You were attacked by… it doesn't matter, you're alright now."

"But… the machine and…" she stops in unsettling silence at the sight of Dylon. She jumps off the table, standing behind Helena saying "Helena… what it that, shoot it?!"

Dylon becomes angered by being called "that", but he soon calms himself. "No, Hunnigan, he's a friend, he's… he's… my brother… in-law."

Hunnigan stares in silence, deciding if Helena saying he's safe is bad or saying he's her brother-in-law. "W-WHAT, what do you mean?!" she asked in confusion.

"You'll have to calm down, we'll explain, just… calm down."

What felt like hours have past, Hunnigan sits in a chair, drinking a cup of tea, across from Dylon, Deborah, and Helena. She takes in a deep breath before starting. "Okay, so… Dylon, saved and somewhat cured your thought dead sister, then he kept her here and..." she stops as Dylon says "You fool, I'll…"

"Dylon, calm down," said Deborah, she turns to Hunnigan, "no, he's not like that. We found this and made it our home. I truly do love him."

"Sorry, I just thought… never mind. Now, for three years, you two have lived on this unknown island, which somehow remained undetected for so long, and began a family to live in solitude, away from civilization?"

"Well… not exactly," said Dylon, now calm, "others live here, they just… 'Go out more often.' My family normally stay here."

"What do you mean by 'others.'"

Suddenly, unknown noises near the shore uproar, Dylon adds "Ask them yourself."

Helena and Hunnigan head towards the shore to see a bizarre looking ship, as if put together from hundreds of other ships. Dylon follows behind saying "You're back, I thought you said this trip would be a few more days."

A figure appears from the ship, it jumps off onto the shore, "We fixed the problem sooner than expected." he says. He notices Helena and Hunnigan, shocked by this encounter, although covered by a scarf, his eyes show all that's needed. "Helena, it's you," he says, going over to Helena. "Do I know you?" she asks.

"Oh, hold on."

He removes his scarf to reveal a damaged face, his left side normal, his right a bright red with a few extra eyes. Helena still doesn't recognize him, he says "Actually, we only met once when I was with Chris."

It soon dawned on her, as says in shock "You're Piers Nivans."

"Yeah, I didn't think you'd know me, actually. Like I said, we only met once."

Everyone heads back to the mansion, the sky darkens so Dylon starts the fireplace. Everyone gathers in the living room, Deborah, Dylon, their children, Helena, Piers and two other associates of his, and Hunnigan. Hunnigan and Helena walk over to Piers. "Piers Nivans, " Hunnigan starts, "thought to have died three years ago on the Neo Umbrella underwater base. How have you been coping with this… mutation."

"Nice to meet you too, I guess," he replies with reluctance, "so, Helena, how are things back home?"

"Fine," she replies, "why do you ask?"

"Just worried about any growing threats, hoping what we're doing is actually helping."

"Help?" sas Hunnigan, "What do you mean?"

Piers gestures for his two associates to come over, one appears to have somewhat blue, clear skin, his skull visible, wearing blue camouflage armor and having short brown hair. The other with most of his hair missing from the right side of his scalp, donning dark green camouflage, a camo net to his side, and bandages covering the right side of his face. "Guys, this is Scott Truen, team scout," he gestures to the one in blue. "And this is Hunter, team sniper," he gestures to the one in green.

They both give a hello, Hunnigan goes close to Scott's face to analyse his visible skull, he backs away in shyness. "When we managed to dig up files on what were left of the computers here, we found sites of other labs. We decided to help out and try to stop them," Piers says, Scott continues it. "Most are just false alarms, but some were very active, worth stopping," Hunter continues, having a snake like voice, "from black market trading, to illegal labs experimenting with parasites or viral strains."

Helena finds this amazing that such a small group could perform so well, then she asks "Just the three of you do this?"

"No," said Piers, "the rest of our team are in a base inside the forest, they stayed behind, but they usually stay close, which is probably why you haven't seen them."

From the left side of the room, one of the doors opens, it is revealed to be Lisa, immediately walking over to Piers with her head facing down. Piers asks "Oh, Lisa, stay for a while then we'll go, okay?"

She stands motionless for a few seconds before giving a small nod of agreement. She walks over to one of the chairs and waits. Helena gives Piers a questioning look, he replied "Oh, right, Dylon told me that when I first arrived, Lisa started acting more social… in a sense. He would say she always stayed in her room, so after each mission, I would go with her and just talk, anyway to help her."

"Talk about what?" Helena asks.

"Whatever's on her mind, she's nicer than she lets on."

"Piers?"

"Yes?"

"How exactly did you arrive here?"

Piers's expression changes from neutral to sad. He tells a story with both his and Dylon's recap of anything he might not remember. Dylon was wondering the shore to fish, when

suddenly, he came upon a body. It showed a mangled right arm, like it was twisted around until it snapped and was pulverized. Dylon walked over to the body, only to have it awaken and shoot out a jolt of electricity from his mangled arm. He saw the pain in his eyes, he quickly took him down and pierced him in the chest with the syringe-like claw from his hand. The man soon passed out, Dylon took him back to this home.

He brought him to his medical room and set him on the table. Instead of using the medicine, he started preparing a concoction of liquids made from the man's blood and certain serums. He injects it into the man's arm. It began to change, the bone-like prongs began to be covered by flesh, the arm changes to a normal shape, all except for pointed fingers and no normal skin. Much time has past since the injection, Dylon walked out of his room to see Lisa up the stairs. He asked her to watch the man while he went to get more healing herbs.

Lisa walked into the room and is surprised to see the man, she stared at his mutated face, one side normal, the other beast. She placed her hand over her bandages on her face, then kneeled down and held his mutated hand. By the time Dylon returned, the man regained consciousness, he looked to his side to see a girl holding his hand, she didn't notice him awake. He heard something in front of him and saw Dylon. He jolted back in fear. With some calming words and time, the man, Piers, soon relaxed and gathered what has happened to him. Dylon left him with Lisa to allow him to try and cope. Lisa saw him acting depressed and angered by this. She grabbed his hand slowly, getting his attention, and said as clearly as she could, in a sweet and gentle voice. "I… know… your… pain."


	7. Do You Remember Me?

As the sun sets by the B.S.A.A. base, Leon goes to the medical tent to see how Ada is doing. He walks in to see her messing with her grappling gun. He kneels down next to her and says "Ada, how are you feeling?"

"I've had a glass shard shot into my eye, so… pretty good."

"An inch to the left and you would have lost that eye."

"Hm, yeah."

"By the way, what exactly did you do to that… thing?"

"I saw him in one of the buildings killing soldiers, and they weren't B.S.A.A."

"What?"

"Here, look."

She pulls out a patch with torn clothing around it, it says "E.S.F." in the center. "What were these people doing?" Leon asks.

"Don't know, they were all dead by the time I showed up. That psychopath is insane, but really keeps no witnesses with a skill."

Leon gives a quick thought before saying "Ada, you do know when evac arrives, you'll be brought in for questioning. You're at the end of your rope."

"Hm, maybe, I'll think of something."

Leon feels worried, what will they do with her for all she has done against the B.S.A.A., maybe not directly, but to prolong the use of B.O.W.s? Leon leaves her to rest while two soldiers come in to keep an eye on her. As he heads for the center of the base, he can hear Chris near the vehicle calling for him. Leon jumps in and is driven to a nearby hill top. "Okay Leon," Chris says, "we're going to keep an eye out for Ruven."

"What if he attacks now?"

"No chance, snipers are already placed at the spots, we're just an extra precaution if Ada tries to escape or if Ruven catches her."

Ada rests soundly in bed, one of the soldiers pulls out a cigar saying "Hey, I'm gonna light a stogy, you don't mind keeping watch, do you?"

"Fine," the soldier replies, "make it quick."

With the sun replaced by the moon, only the soldier's lighter is seen in the darkness. After his first puff, he notices something, no other activity is seen. The eerie calm has the soldier putting his guard up, but from the dark, large hands grab him by the throat and begin to strangle him. The other soldier is oblivious to the struggle, until he hears something hit the ground. Suddenly, a large figure rushes in and tackles him to the ground. He looks up, only to scream at the sight of an axe, which lodges in his head.

Ada awakens, to her shock, she sees Ruven, his clothes covered in blood. He slowly walks over to her, she reaches for her grapple gun, only to be met by his horrifying gaze. He knocks her unconscious. Chris and Leon finally arrive to the sniper's location, but only find what's left of the sniper. Chris is shocked to see this, but soon realizes Ruven is in the camp. He grabs the sniper and looks through the scope, seeing him carrying Ada away. They rush back into the vehicle and head down.

The bodies of all the soldiers lay destroyed and perforated with stab wounds and slashes. Chris couldn't bare to see his team like this and starts punching the ground, Leon stops him and says "If you want to avenge them, we have to stop Ruven."

"...You're right, let's go."

Far in the distance, beyond sight, an old factory, deserted and dusty, sees activity. A hanging light in the middle of the ceiling aims down on Ada in the center. She awakens to see Ruven standing in the shadows. "Alright ugly," she says almost sarcastically, "first, you want to kill me, now you capture me and prolong it. Had a change of heart?"

"No," he replies, "because now I see who you are."

"Sorry, I'm a little lost."

"Funny, but this is now laughing matter. I remember you, but do you remember me?"

"What, were you a blind date?"

He comes charging and strikes down at her, she flinches, only to see him hit the ground with his machete, the blade strong enough to cut through the concrete. "Of course you wouldn't remember me, it was so long ago, but, you should remember what YOU DID TO ME!"

He rips off his hockey mask to reveal a mangled face, riddled with scars. The most notable is a gigantic slit right near the forehead, reaching down to the left eye. The bone itself uneven and visibly damaged under the skin, his eye socket showing a crack, the bone protruding from there. Ada looks away in disgust, but Ruven forces her to look, "Look at me… LOOK AT ME!" he yells. As her eyes focus in, memories of terror flash by, and he can see it in her eyes. "Hehe, now you remember." he says.

"That's… impossible. You should be dead." she replies in genuine fear.  
"Yes, all those years ago in Raccoon City."


	8. The Past Can Haunt You

Year, 1998, Raccoon City is reduced to ruins riddled with the undead. Anyone left alive either struggle to outlast this or try to escape, most now food for monsters that don't even need it, only wanting to spread the virus. Those who last long fight to stay alive, but one fights to complete her mission, Ada Wong, bandaged up and trying to find a way out. Through her struggle to survive, she still needed to focus on retrieving samples of the G-virus. Her close encounters with death must not deter her, but what of a combination of murderous intent and the strength to do so to all.

She walked down what was once a bustling street, now a fire and corpse riddled path, but these corpses won't stay down for long. She headed for the nearest building to take shelter, maybe outlast them, but this building isn't empty. As she viewed her surroundings, she saw a figure, crouched into a corner. She took aim with her gun, but the figure says "DON'T SHOOT, I'M STILL ALIVE!" while raising his hands. Ada lowered her gun, she noticed a large hunting knife on the ground, it laid in light coming from a window.

She attempted to pick it up, but the man says "No don't! Don't do it."

But she didn't listen, thinking he's too scared to think. But, as she reached down to get it, the window shattered, large arms grabbed her by the throat and tried to pull her out. She managed to snatch up the knife and stabbed the figure in the shoulder. She went down with a thud, along with the figure. The man rushed out the door, but is soon caught by the undead, Ada tried to stand, not noticing the figure standing up and grabbing the hunting knife. One of the zombies was about to bite the man, but the giant figure literally punched its head off, dismembering the others, and threw the man to the ground face first.

Ada stood and watched in shock, as the man tried to get up, his nose bleeding, the figure grabbed his shirt's collar, and stabbed the man repeatedly in the back with the knife. The man went limp, the figure dropped him and turned to Ada. She saw him clearly, the flames reveal what the shadows hid. He stood taller than anyone she has met, wearing torn up and blooded jeans and a long sleeved shirt under a hooded hunting vest. His face covered in rags, only his left eye visible. At first, she thought he was just a zombie, until he spoke. "What's wrong, never seen a crazy man before. Hm, doesn't matter, you're next."

Without warning, she aimed her gun and shot him five times. He goes down in pain, but soon regained his footing and replied "Guess we'll do it the hard way."

He charged for her, swinging the knife around insanely. Ada backed away and ran, leaving him to give chase. The streets riddled with downed cars slowed her down, allowing the psycho to catch up. Ada shot him repeatedly, but no matter how painful, he still came. She saw a barricaded building, the front door open. She ran in and locked the door, catching her breath and scanning her surroundings. The building had bats, emptied guns, rusted pipes, anything that could be used as a weapon.

Suddenly, banging came from the door, the man started ramming into the door, trying to knock it down. Before Ada could do anything, something jumped from the ceiling and spooked her, causing her to drop the gun. She tried to pick it up, but the small creature ran to grab it, she jumped back in shock. The man continued to bash the door, Ada ran to another door deeper into the building, and locked it too, hoping to hide. She looked around the dark room, reaching for her flashlight to help see her surroundings. She saw a large room of metal shelves with boxes all over, scurrying noises caught Ada off guard. She began to search around with caution.

The man finally destroyed the door and stopped to search around. With no sight of her, he started tossing large items around in anger, but soon noticed the pile of weapons. Ada started scouting around, checking each box. She began to feel stressed, the last time this happened, she was attacked by muscle exposed creatures with long tongues, feeling nervous like this has reasons. Suddenly, rustling from a lone box caught her attention. She slowly creeped closer to it, the noises making it hard for her to move any closer. She now hovered over the box, she opened it to see a small creature, having large, alien-like eyes and thorn-like hair.

It stared at her for a second, Ada saw her gun under it. As she reached for it, the creature hissed at her, grabbed the gun, and jumped out. She tried to catch it, but failing each time, with it jumping at the last second. She saw a small rock on the ground, grabbing it and throwing it at the creature, knocking it down. As she came closer, it appeared to be crying in pain, making small noises. Suddenly, as she took her gun, it let out a loud wailing noise at her. She didn't know what it was doing, but soon remembered who was on the other side of the door. Without warning, the door is smashed down, the large man tackled her to the wall. Ada sat in pain, she heard the man say "Okay little guy, you rest" while putting it in his hood. The large man stood over her with a pipe in his hand. "Okay," she said, "who, or what, are you?"

"Michael Ruvavich, and I'm a man who's gone crazy."

"Michael, hehe, not really scary, is it?"

"You'll soon fear it."

He raised the pipe over his head and was about to swing, but Ada aimed her gun and shot him in the knee cap. He fell, groaning in pain, and Ada took her chance. By the time she was out the door, he was back up and charged at her. Now with his knife, he swung for the stomach, Ada jumped back each time, until she hits a building. He stabbed for her, she ducked and kicked him in the same knee cap, but he didn't stumble this time. She crawled away as fast as she could, but he grabbed her by the foot and swung her against a nearby car. The impact broke the windows, causing cuts on her exposed skin areas. She regained her footing in a wobbling stance, Michael charged and pinned her to the car. As he tried to strike her with the knife, Ada angled her gun to hit his arm.

The shots go through his elbow with ease, Michael backed away while folding his broken arm. Ada was about to run, but in the distance, a large tanker could be seen, coming at blinding speeds. It's obvious to her it's zombie powered, that is to say the driver is dead in his seat. She turned around, now seeing a fully healed Michael, his arm no longer broken. She saw that all of his senses are focused on her, so she began running towards him, so does he toward her. At the last second, Ada pulled her grappling gun out and aimed for a building's roof. She snagged the hook on the roof and flew up to the top. Michael now saw the tanker coming straight for him. In a split second, the entire street went up in flames, the tanker crashed into Michael and swerved towards the building, causing it to explode. Ada took one more exhausted look before continuing her escape.

The small creature from Michael's hood reappeared from the rubble, undamaged, it must have jumped out and hid before the crash. It found Michael trapped under rubble in the store, seeing only a hand sticking out. At first, it tried moving the large rubble, only to scurry away as Michael rose from the destruction, his clothes burned off, except for his pants. His rags around his face unraveled and fell apart. While not fully healed, he leaned against a standing wall and hit it in anger. The small creature noticed something in the rubble and pulled it out, a piece of red clothing.

He brought it to a frustrated Michael and he examined it. "Can you track her?" he asked the small creature, nodding in agreement. "Okay, let's find that bitch," he said before standing. Before leaving, the small creature scratched at more large rubble, Michael took notice and moved it. Under the rocks he found items from the barricaded building. Of them, he pulled out a machete, a leather jacket, and a beat-up hockey mask . He examined it before pulling it on, walking towards a piece of reflecting metal. He admired his new clothing and look. He kneeled down towards the creature and picked him up and puts him on his shoulder. He followed the creature's directions, hoping to find Ada.

After some time, Ada finally found an escape route, a helicopter in the sky. With the grapple gun, she thought this would be easy. Suddenly, on top of the freeway structure she stood on, a creature climbed over the side and stopped her. Appearing as a giant man with rocks growing on his back and large claws. Ada saw the helicopter coming closer and planned to deal with the creature immediately. The fight was exhausting, but she managed to defeat it, only to be attacked by another creature of death, Michael. "Really, after a fight like that, I'm exhausted. mmm… Michael was it?" she asked.

"Hehe, you know, you were right," he replied, "Michael isn't very scary?"

"Yeah, all you got is your last name, Ruvavich."  
"Hmmm… Ruv… Ruven, hehe, I like the sound of that."

"Better, but…" before she could finish, Ruven charged for her and tackled her to the ground. Her constant battles with the creatures took too much out of her. Ruven raised his machete to stab her. Ada soon noticed the hunting knife in his pocket and pulled it out to stab at him, but he doesn't flinch. "Any last words?" he asked.

"I don't know, is bye-bye one or two?" she replied. With that, she saw the helicopter above her and aimed her grapple gun at it. She snagged it on the foot railing and is pulled up with great speed. Ruven didn't give up and raced to catch her. Before she was lifted off the ground, he grabbed her by the leg and stabbed her in the side. She screamed in pain and, with all her remaining strength, rammed the knife through his mask and into his head, right next to the left eye. He went still and simply fell to the ground like a rock.

As his vision went blurry, Ruven noticed a rocket heading to the center on the small creature appeared before him and tried helping him up with no success. Suddenly, in a flash, a great light shown. Shockwaves raced towards him. All goes black.

Within a day or so, after the media left the now destroyed area of land, large transport trucks arrived. Soldiers with gas masks and men in hazmat suits began scoping the open area, collecting any kind of samples. One truck headed off on its own, only two passengers, a soldier and a hazmat guy. They noticed something in the distance and investigated. They stopped in shock at the sight of the large rock-human creature. They were amazed that its armored body survived the blast. The soldier tried moving the body while the hazmat scanned it.

"Hey, look," the soldier said.

The hazmat went over to see what he was referring to. To his shock, he saw a large body, sheltered within the creature. He realized only the rock-like armor withstood the impact, the inside being hollowed out. The hazmat turned to the soldier. "Help me lift him up."

He did so. The two struggled to carry the man into the back of the truck. The soldier noticed the man's face. He saw a large knife jammed into it, along with the mask. He pulled it out, the blood dripping of smoothly.

Near the edge of the destruction, the others waited as the last truck returned. One of the soldiers watched as it got closer and closer. As it did, something uneased them. The truck continued at its normal speed, not slowing down. Without warning, everyone tried to run as the truck crashed into the others, causing a large explosion.

All but one soldier died, the lone survivor noticed the truck's driver still remained inside the front seat. The front portion was heavily armored, sustaining no damage. The soldier aimed his gun towards the driver still inside, hidden behind blackened windows. He cautiously opened the door, only to find the driver dead, not from the blast, but by a metal rod jammed through his head from the back of the truck. He realized something killed him as he drove back. Suddenly, the soldier turned towards the back, only to be grabbed by the throat and raised up against the truck. Ruven stood there, his face mangled by the blow from Ada, and started strangling the soldier.

The soldier struggled to aim his gun, but soon was thrown to the ground. Ruven began stomping his head to a pulp. A large pool of blood began to gather after he was finished. With what's left of his hockey mask, he used a piece of cloth to hold it in place. He walked out into the distance, leaving the now destroyed city, and with the small creature on his shoulder.


	9. Pure rage

Ada lays there in shock, the memories returning, the fear building. She would never had thought anything could survive the destruction of Raccoon City. Yet he did, after being stabbed in the head, he survived in that state. Ruven stands there for a moment, enjoying her fear as it builds. Her expression soon turns to frustration. At the corner of her eye, Ada sees her weapons, leaning against one of the metal pillars. She stands and sprints towards them in a second. But, as she aims her crossbow, Ruven disappears.

She tries to stay calm, but her anxiety weakens her senses. She looks all around, up on the walk ways, towards the only door in the room, the single light bulb aiming down on her. Suddenly, his voice breaks the silence. "What's wrong? What happened to that cocky attitude?" Ada's vision blurs with each passing second. "Strange, it's like you feel something that you never felt before. But I know it well."

She feels trapped, like if she moves, she's dead. "How," she manages to say, "how could you have survived?!"

Silence returns, and is gone in an instance. She blinks for a second, and he appears before her and grabs her by the neck. He lifts her up to his eye level. "Well… let's just say I got lucky." Ada struggles for breath as he continues. "But what really helped me… was my rage. I feel a need to kill all who anger me. Right now, I want to SEE YOU DEAD!"

He drops her to the ground. Immediately after, he kicks her to the other side of the factory, the sound of bones breaking are clear in the emptiness. Ada holds her side in pain, but still, she tries to fight. She stands slowly, Ruven walks slowly towards her, aching to kill her. She feels as though this is the end. Suddenly, he stops for a second. He turns towards the door, only to see a man aim a grenade launcher at him and shoot. He empties the whole clip on Ruven, the smoke clouds of the grenades too thick to see what's left. Even after each explosion, he doesn't stop, he just continues until the trigger only shot blanks.

Ada focuses, she sees it is Leon. He runs over to her in distress as she drops to her knees. "ADA?!" he yells as he helps her up. "Are you alright?!"

She slowly looks to him with relief, but soon changes to shock as her focus goes to the smoke cloud. "Run," she says, then screams. "RUN!"

Leon turns and sees Ruven, still standing, more pissed than ever. Leon leans Ada on his shoulder as they hurry out. As they hobble out, Ruven retrieves his mask and ties it back on. Leon and Ada run as fast as they can, trying to escape this immortal monster. Suddenly, Ada coughs up blood. Leon stops and tries to set her down. But Ada yells, "NO?! We have to go, don't stop!"

Leon sees the fear in her eyes, he couldn't believe it. He has never seen her this terrified, or ever. The calm, collective agent he knew now only shows distress.

Ruven isn't far behind, but struggles to follow them in the maze of corridors.

"ADAAA!" he roars, "WHERE ARE YOU!" he stops for a minute, listening for any kind of noise. Leon and Ada find a room with office supplies and cabinets inside, a window making up most of the wall on the other side of the room. Light shines through faintly, showing it's morning. They run inside, Leon locks the door and blocks it with the cabinets and such.

Ada rests against the wall, hiding her face with her arms. Leon kneels down and tries to comfort her. "Ada," he says, "look at me. We'll be alright, just hold out."

"Leon… you have to leave." she replies. She begins to calm down.

"...No… I'm not leaving you hear."

"He's after me… just go," she begins to sound more serious.

"Calm down, ones we get outside, Chris can…"

Ada stops him, looking up into his face with frustration. "JUST GO?!... You've seen what he's capable of. He survived Raccoon City, what makes you think you can and Chris can stop him?"

Leon is speechless for a moment, he recalls what Ada said. "Wait… he was there?"

"I thought I killed him, but he just wouldn't die. Now he wants me dead."

Leon couldn't believe what she was saying. He never thought Ada, of all people, would give up. It begs the question to what Ruven can do. Suddenly, the door is bashed open, the cabinet flung to the other side of the room, broken apart. He stands in the doorway for a moment, turning his head down to them.

Leon jumps up and lands a kick to his chest, but he doesn't flinch. He grabs Leon by the foot and tosses him towards the other side of the room. Ada can only look on, her wounds too great, as she watches him fight Leon. Ruven only walks towards him, his hands itching to rip him apart. Leon regains his balance and pulls out his handgun, aiming for the eyes. Two shots, a bullet in each eye, but Ruven just digs them out and waits for his eye to regenerate. "Is that all you got?" he says, seeming calm, only to be hiding the urge for total bloodshed.

He charges for Leon, ramming him against the wall. The impact causes the withered paint to chip and fall off. He grabs Leon by the legs and upper torso this time, and throws him to the ground. As Leon groans in pain, he feels Ruven's foot on his head, the pressure increasing. The groans turn to screams of pain, Ruven smiles under his mask. Ada watches in horror, she couldn't stand it and tries to help. But the wounds take their toll, she can't even stand now.

Ruven turns to Ada. "You know what," he says, "this is more fun. You watching as I'm about to kill him. Let's make it last."

He pushes harder, Leon continues to scream, Ada closes her eyes. Suddenly, the window shatters into millions of pieces, the increase in light blinds Ruven for a moment. He steps back and off of Leon. An unknown figure runs toward him. Ada holds her hands over her face as she tries to see who it is. It's revealed to be Chris, holding a large syringe of unknown liquid. He runs behind Ruven and stabs him in the neck, injecting the liquid. Ruven regains focus and grabs him by his head, raising him off the ground. He looks at him with annoyance. "What don't you get it, I can't… can't..."

Ruven suddenly loses his grip, his vision becoming blurry. Chris lands on his feet and moves Leon out of the way. Ruven struggles to keep his balance, his words becoming slurred and unrecognizable. Then, he falls to the ground, the impact breaking parts of the floor. The three finally breath at ease.

Ada looks in confusion. "What did you do?"

Chris picks up Leon and sets him next to her before answering. "Tranquilizer, enough to take down a raging Rhino, maybe two."

Ada looked stunned, surprised about not thinking that in the first place. "Hm… clever. He can't die, but even he can't stay up with that much in him."

"Reinforcements will be here in a minute, and this time, you're not going anywhere."

After what has happened, Ada rather be taken for questioning then near Ruven.

Chris manages to carry both Leon and Ada out as the reinforcements arrive. Each soldier looks as if they were planning on fighting an army the size of China, which seems perfect for Ruven. As they charge in to capture him, medics appear to help Leon and Ada. Chris leans against one of the armored trucks, trying to relax. But, knowing that his whole team was dead, made it difficult.

Suddenly, Chris hears one of the soldiers yell for him. "CAPTAIN! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"

With that, he rushes back inside, back to the room Ruven was in, only to find him gone. He stands there for a few seconds, one of the soldiers attempting to ask of what to do now, but stopped by an angered Chris. "I WANT A SEARCH TEAM, OUTSIDE, NOW!"

Without daily, the soldiers fan out and search the area. Chris walks over to one of the walls, punching a hole in it with a curse. "DAMN IT!"


	10. Unknown to You

It is late at night. On the remote island, things start calming down. In this time, Hunnigan is kept under constant surveillance, Dylon still doesn't trust her, even if she has no means of communication to the outside world. With this time, Helena enjoys the subtle peace. She sits in the library, finding any books of interest. A strange tag, popping out from one of the rows, catches her eye. She walks over and pulls out what appears to be a bunch of drawings held together with string. The pictures appear to be made by a child, colors everywhere and all.

Helena stops on the last one she sees, a picture of herself, Deborah, Dylon, and the children. The door opens, she turns to see Dylon, holding Maya on his right shoulder. Maya starts reaching for the book Helena has. She closes it and hands it to her, she hugs it in joy. Dylon puts her down and says "It's her picture book, something for… I don't know, she just likes to draw."

Helena looks down at her and smiles. To think, it's been a few days, and she feels at home. However, as she looks back to how this started, the thought rolled into her head. "Dylon, you've been a great host but...?"

Dylon gestures to Maya to give them some privacy. "What's wrong?"

"Well, after learning my sister is still alive, I almost completely forgot, but… what happened to Verden?"

Dylon looks down in annoyance. "It… wasn't him."

"What?!" Helena is confused, was it not him?

Dylon walka over to the large chair and takes a seat. "It was a fake, an impersonator."

"What do you mean?" Helena asks.

Dylon looks down on the left side of the chair, where a small lever sits. He pulls it up several times, in a set pattern. On the last one, a small hole in the wall opens up, revealing an ancient journal. Dylon gestures to Helena to retrieve it. As she did, she flips through the pages, stopping near the center of the journal. The page has a photo on the left side, showing a group of scientists, some young, some old. One stands out from the rest, Verben, looking the same as she met him.

Helena is baffled, the person she met a week ago, hasn't aged at all.

"It couldn't have been him," says Dylon, who knows exactly what Helena was thinking. "After I found the body, I found small features in the skin, showing signs of surgery. As far as I can guess, this man was to be the Verben the public would know."

Helena, still baffled by the realization, struggles to ask "So… is he…"

"No," replies Dylon, "I know he's still alive, I can feel it. He's out there…"

Helena notices Dylon tensing up, his hands gripping the armrests, his nails cutting into them. For a moment, she sees the same creature on the cruise ship in front of her. The same fear, building. But as soon as it appears, it vanishes. "I'm sorry," says Dylon, "it's just the thought of… those experiments. If he somehow captures my family…"

He couldn't finish, the thought tugged on his emotions. Helena decides to leave, feeling that he needs time alone now. However, deep down, she felt the same when Derek Simmons took her sister, doing such horrible things to personal gains. As she opens the door, Maya runs in, worried. Dylon sees her running towards him. "Daddy," she says, "are you okay?"

"Hm… I'm fine sweetie, don't worry."

Suddenly, Theo and Raph come running in. Helena was amazed, it's like they felt their father's grief. In another room, Deborah tries to put Dimitri to sleep. He begins to cry softly. Even she begins to feel saddened. She looks toward Dylon's direction, as if she feels his grief too. His children climb onto the chair with him. He begins to feel calm, at peace, seeing how they care for him as much as he does for them.

Far off in an unknown area, a camp is set near the shore of a beach. In one of the the tents scattered around, a being stirs from his sleep. He awakens, appearing surprised. He walks out of his tent and looks towards the ocean, as if he sees an invisible force. He walks back to his tent, grabbing a rolled piece of paper next to it. He opens it up to reveal a map. With his finger, he marks a line on it, using an unknown liquid, going out to the ocean. With that, he goes back to sleep, awaiting morning to come.


	11. Aftermath

The day goes by in a flash. A small town, centered in a mountainous land, now refuge for the wary to relax. In a hospital, Leon rests in a white bed, his head bandaged up. He awakens, immediately sitting up, recalling what has happened to him. He looks around the small room, a t.v. sits on the wall, his clothes next to him on a small counter. Chris comes into his room, appearing as if he hasn't slept in days. Leon is surprised to see Chris, still wearing his B.S.A.A. suit, armored vest and all.

"W-what happened?" he asks. Chris took a seat for a moment with a groan. "He got away."

"Who?"

"Ruven. He escaped the area. Three days spent searching, and nothing."

Leon is shocked, realizing that Chris hasn't slept since the attack. "Wait, how long was I out?"

"About two days, your injuries were worse than we thought. I had a team rush you two to the nearest hospital."

Leon was amazed, but then realized what Chris just said. "Wait, two?"

Suddenly, he remembered, Ada. Leon tries standing up, a little wobbly at first, but soon finds his balance. He looks over at Chris, surprised he wasn't trying to stop him. Chris stands up and starts walking out of the room. "I'd try to stop you, but it pointless right now. I'll take you to her."

Leon is glad that Chris understands that he wants to see Ada for himself. After a few minutes, they arrive to her room, soldiers standing guard both inside and out. They let them pass, knowing they were the exception. Leon is shocked to see Ada's condition, her whole body was bandaged up, along with a cast on her left arm. Leon kneels down next to her, holding onto her right hand. "Ada, can you hear me?"

She stirs from her sleep to see him, smiling a little. "Leon… is… is…"

"Yes, what?"

"...is my stuff safe?"

Leon gives a quick chuckle before backing away. Chris places his hand on Leon's shoulder, he turns to him. "Leon, you do know what the B.S.A.A. will do once she's healed, right?"

Leon becomes a little frustrated. "Chris, you know as well as I do that she wasn't responsible for C-virus incident in China."

"That may be, but she's still involved with other viral outbreaks, procuring samples for whoever she works for and possible terrorist groups."

Ada joins the conversation. "I'm right here, you know. Also, I work for anyone who pays me, okay." They don't respond to her. A few minutes of silence pass until interrupted by someone walking into the room. The man gestures for Chris and Leon to follow him, they do so. Outside the room, the man looks to Leon. "Mr. Kennedy, I'm glad to see you awake, but I have some unsettling news." Leon begins to feel worried, looking to Chris, then back to the man. "I'm afraid Ingrid Hunnigan… was lost at sea.¨

"WHAT?! What do you mean?" Leon responds, hostile toward the man. Chris steps between them for a moment to stop Leon's advance towards him. "I'm sorry, but about a week ago, she was sent on a field mission, accompanying B.S.A.A. soldiers. We lost her coordinates near the middle of the ocean."  
"Why wasn't I alerted before?"

"We tried, but I'm afraid, because of your assignment, we couldn't contact you. Also, your recovery time was…"

Leon doesn't let him finish. I storms off back to his room with Chris following behind. Leon enters and stops in front of the window. Chris waits outside the door as he tries to process this. "Look, I know that this is tough, but…"

"Tough," Leon says, cutting him off. "First, Helena disappeared, now Hunnigan is lost out at sea. Maybe dead."

"Okay," Chris replies, "But no one is saying they're dead…"

Leon cuts him off again. "Exactly, this can't be a coincidence. Something, or someone, out their has them."

Chris becomes agitated, knowing what he'll suggest next. "What evidence do you have that they're captured or anything?!"

"I don't, but I'll find out for myself."

As Leon begins to walk out, Chris stops him. "I'm sorry, but I'm not letting you go on a wild hunch."

Leon becomes frustrated. "Tell me, how did you feel when your own sister was captured five years ago?"

"This is different, we had no knowledge of this Alex Wesker, or her plans."

"That's why I'm doing this. Who knows, it could be another Wesker, or even… him."

Chris couldn't believe what he was suggesting. "You think Ruven had something to do with this? That can't be."

"We've been fighting these viruses for years, then suddenly someone like him pops out of nowhere? Who's to say others aren't out there."

After some time of arguing, Chris gives in. "You do realize that you won't have any backup for this, and that you're still in recovery?"

Leon chooses not to listen as he walks back into his room. He places his hand over the bandages to feel for any real pain. He has been through worse, thanks to his history. He starts removing them, puts his clothes on, and looks for his gun. He crouches under the hospital bed to find his weapons and gear in a box. With that, he walks out, leaving Chris to deal with Ada.


	12. Intruders

Back on the island, Hunnigan begins to deal with tech withdrawal. For most of her time there, she's been kept inside the mansion, with nothing to do but read books and wander, with constant supervision, of course. She sits inside one of the many rooms, the mansion was so large that it could fit a small village. Piers stands guard by the door with her, tweaking with his sniper. He notices Hunnigan began moving her fingers, almost like she was in front of a computer. He walks over to her and snaps her out of it. "Hey, you alright?"

She whips her head to him in surprise. "OH, I'm sorry."

Piers steps back and pulls up a chair next to her. "Are you alright, you started looking like a zombie. I rather not shoot you."

"My apologies, it's that… I'm always at my station at headquarters, watching over Leon. It just feels… strange."

He gives a quick chuckle. "Sorry if this place lacks technology. But, to be honest, it's peaceful here, better than back at Base Camp."

"Base Camp?" she said, unsure of what he meant. "What Base Camp?"

"Oh right," he responds. "Well, near the interior of the island, there's a structure built out there, like a Base, or training ground. It's where we, infected and with any form of combat training, live."

"Wait," she asks. "If there are others, why aren't they here?"

"Dylon felt this would be a bad place to do any training. Besides, we chose to live separate, some of us aren't keen to these form of conditions either."

"How many of you are there?"

"Well, you already met Hunter and Scott, me included. In total, there's eight of us, not counting him."

"Who's he?"

"A few years ago, we sent a man named Ryan on a mission. He's a former agent if you will, something like Ada, only less serious. He was sent on the mission with his partner to infiltrate an unknown laboratory we located near the badlands of Utah. He ran into this guy, called himself Agent, and, long story short, ended up helping each other. They keep in touch, even Dylon feels he could trust him."

"So, is he a friend, an ally?"

"We're not sure, but he helps out."

Hunnigan begins to feel uneasy. "Something wrong?" Piers asks.

"Well… what do you mean by 'unknown lab'?".

"...He found it on a recon mission, we didn't know what experiments it was conducting, but we knew it was Entity. So, Ryan set a bomb to destroy the place."

Hunnigan felt more uneasy, a secret base inside the U.S., without anyone knowing. Another thought came to mind. "One more thing. When I spoke to Dylon while you were with Helena, he said something about a 'guardian' in the water. What is it."

"None of us really know. Dylon felt it would be too dangerous to dive in and see. We decided to leave it alone."

"Any idea on how big it is?"

"No. We tried to circle the island, but past the mountains, whirlpools prevent us from going around, and the fog doesn't help much."

Suddenly, the door burst open. They turn to see it was Lisa, looking sad. Piers gets out of his chair and walks towards her. "Lisa, what's wrong?"

She doesn't answer, instead, wrapping her arms around his waist. Hunnigan begins to feel embarrassed, watching this. "Uh… Lisa… what are you…" Piers says, trying to have her let go. She wouldn't, she just continued to stick to him. Behind her, Scott walks into the room, maneuvering around them. "Captain Piers, Lisa… uh… wanted me to watch Hunnigan, with your permission."

"Okay," Piers says, "just go please."

Scott escorts Hunnigan out of the room, Piers shuffles over to the bed in the corner. They close the door to let him deal with Lisa in private. Scott starts walking over to another room. "Come on, it's better to let Captain Piers deal with it."

Hunnigan doesn't give a response, standing in front of the door, curious about what he's doing in their. "Scott," she says, "what is Piers doing?"

"I don't know, but whenever that happens, it's better to give them space and…," he stops mid sentence, checking his left ear. "Crap, I think my communicator dropped when I came in." He walks over to the door, opening the handle slowly, considering if it's even reasonable to disobey his Captain's orders, just to get his communicator. Hunnigan notices a hint of curiosity in his eyes before he opens the door, more curious than she thought. When the door opens, he was about to say why he's walking in, only to jump back in shock. He saw Piers, pinned down on the bed, with Lisa hovering over him.

Scott closes the door, immediately wishing to avoid any embarrassment and disappointment for disobeying his Captain. He and Hunnigan hurry out of the hall. As they do, Piers pops his head out of the door, appearing annoyed and just as embarrassed.

* * *

On the other side of the mansion on the ground floor, Helena continues her exploration of the large structure. She's amazed that after about a week, she still finds new rooms or areas of the mansion. As she comes to a split in the halls, one way going left, the other right, she begins to hear noises from one of the rooms behind her. She turns around and looks at the door to her left, the sounds appearing to come from there. She opens the door to find Maya, Theo, and Raph, running around inside. The room was somewhat large, a small lightbulb in the center was the only source of light. The room has stacks of boxes, crowded shelves, and items everywhere. Maya doesn't notice Helena and bumps into her leg. She looks up in surprise to see her aunt at the doorway. Theo retreats behind a few boxes and Raph did the same as Maya, running into Helena's other leg. She gives a quick chuckle before kneeling down to talk to them.

"What are you guys doing," she asks, "and what is this room?"

Maya backs away, giving a childish smile. "This is the 'treasure room'," she says, moving her hands from the top of her head to her sides as she said the name of the room.

"What's the 'treasure room'?" Helena copies her.

Raph moves in front of Maya. "It's our stuff, anything we find outside."

Maya runs around him and grabs Helena's left hand, pulling her into the room. "Aunty, we have something for you."

Helena isn't sure if it was safe, but she thought that they were just kids, it couldn't be that bad. Maya leads her towards the back of the room, there hung a large shelf with a small book and a locked box. Helena stands there for a moment, Maya gesturing for her to take the items. Helena tries opening the book, only to see it has a lock on it too. She kneels down to be as close to Maya as possible. "Thank you, but… what are these?"

"They for you. Mama says we can't have them. Aunty have them."

Helena gives a small smile, enjoying how childish her sister's kids act, which shouldn't be surprising since they are very young. She walks back to her room to see if she could open the book or box. The box is made of old and almost fragile wood. With little effort, she brakes the screws of the lock handle off. When she opens the box, she was surprised. Inside lays a Hydra, a small three barreled shotgun, along with a few shells. The small to medium sized gun brings back many memories. During the Tall Oaks incident, she had one handy, only to lose it during the escape from the catacombs, but that's for another time.

She is amazed that how well the gun looked, showing to have been cared for greatly by its previous owner. She isn't sure if Dylon would allow her to keep it, seeing as he destroyed her handgun. She plans to find him and ask if she could keep it. She couldn't find him anywhere, however. Not in his medical room, bedroom, or the library. She finds herself in the foyer, confused and tired of searching the whole mansion. At the corner of her eye, she sees a figure outside the window. As she looks out to get a better view, she sees it's Dylon, heading towards the shore.

She feels it wouldn't be too much of a bother to ask him now. She noticed that anything outside the mansion he did, it wasn't that important. He was moving at a quickened pace, as if he was in a hurry. Helena finds it a little difficult to catch up to him. As he heads towards the shore, the fog grew thicker. She soon loses him completely. She tries calling for him, knowing he will hear her. "DYLON, WHERE ARE YOU?" No answer.

Helena couldn't see anything, except for the ground by her feet. Even the sound of the waves were useless, they sound as if they were coming from all sides. As she continued to listen, she notices another sound mixed in, a strange rocking sound, like something floating near the shore. She tries to follow it, hoping it would lead her to Dylon. The noise grew stronger, and stronger, until she finds herself face to face with a boat. At first, she thought it was Piers's, but the boat has unknown markings, appearing cross-like, four sharp ends extending from a staff-like shape.

The noise appears to be coming from behind the boat. She goes around it to find a small object, bobbing around the surface. Suddenly, the atmosphere around her becomes heavy, as if she was being watched. Helena slowly backs away, about to bolt the opposite way off the shore. Suddenly, she hears loud footsteps behind her, like someone running towards her. Before she could react, a figure appears before her and pushes her out of the way. In a split second, she sees large blades behind the figure, they would have hit her if the figure didn't save her.

She soon realizes it was Dylon, but the figure with the claws was unknown. He jumps back up, along with Helena, to confront their assailant. The figure becomes clear all of a sudden. He stands taller than they did, a foot or more than Dylon. His head and upper torso are relatively armored, but nothing else. The most striking features are the eyes, which were sewn shut, and the meter long claws on the gauntlets on his hands. Helena readies her shotgun, good thing that she brought it. Dylon goes into a battle stance. The creature gives a loud grunt before charging at them. He swipes his left claw at Dylon, his right to Helena. She dodges by diving under them, Dylon jumping over and landing behind the creature. He extends a spike from his palm and jabs it into the creature's back. It goes down in pain, Dylon was surprised that did more than he thought. He sees a strange growth in the spot he hit afterwards.

Helena aims her shotgun, only to see a tentacle appear above her head and grab onto it. As she struggles to regain her weapon, she follows the tentacle to the other end. She finds it to be originating from another figure, standing on the front of the boat. Dylon sees Helena struggling and decides to leave the downed creature. Out of nowhere, a third figure appears. It jumps from behind the second one, spinning in the air, grabbing Dylon's attention. Without warning, it lands a kick right into his face, knocking him down, and proceeding to pin him down. It grabs him by the head, moving it, erratically, from side to side. Dylon moves his legs onto the creature's chest and shoves it off. He squares off with the creature as it paces around him on all fours. Helena is finally able to regain her shotgun, the tentacle having given up. But as she tries to locate it and the second figure, they both disappear. Suddenly, she feels something hit the back of her head, knocking her down.

She turns over to see the figure appear out of nothing. As she readies her weapon, the figure knocks it out of her hands. Dylon sees her pinned down. He tries to help her, but the creature blocks him. At that moment, Dylon extends his arm, hand open. A large spike begins growing from the center, before shooting out towards the second creature. It jumps back before the spike hits it. With that, Helena springs for her weapon and fires off a shell. It wasn't a direct hit, but what did hit knocked the creature down. She stands up in relief for a second before the first creature reenters the fight.

It swings randomly, trying to hit its target. The back of the blades hit Helena, knocking her against the ship. Dylon becomes frustrated, but was still struggling to get around the third creature. Suddenly, a loud noise is shot off. A bullet flies by Dylon and hits the large creature in the same spot on the back, taking him down. The third creature looks pass Dylon to see the shooter on the edge of the beach, Scott. Scott calls out to Dylon, who couldn't hear what he said. The creature takes its chance as Dylon was distracted. He leaps over him and charges for Scott.

He aims his assault rifle and tries to hit the creature. Unfortunately, it's too fast and dodges each bullet. It knocks him down and grabs him by the legs. It starts spinning him around before tossing him into the forest. Dylon was both worried for Scott and amazed at the creature's strength. It soon runs towards the forest, Dylon following behind. He stops to find Scott leaning against a tree and helps him up. "I'm fine," he says, "I'll help Helena, you go stop that thing."

Dylon gives a quick nod before continuing his chase.


	13. We Finally Meet

Dylon runs as fast as he can, hitting speeds twice that of an Olympic sprinter. The creature jumps from tree to tree, but Dylon manages to keep pace with the creature in his site. Suddenly, it vanishes. Dylon stops within a fraction of a second. He finds himself in a clearing, nothing but grass surrounded by tall trees. Their branches extend beyond any normal distance, the foliage on top so thick that no sunlight was able to penetrate to the grassy floor. With his senses on high alert, Dylon keeps his guard up and tries to find it.

Nothing makes a noise, only the calm wind, then, the attack comes. The creature bursts out of the trees, striking him in the face, knocking him down for a moment. He regains his balance, finding no sign of it. It attacks again, appearing as if it sprinted past him. He looks to his side to find a large gash, his blood beginning to trickle. The wound quickly heals, Dylon grows more angered. He takes a deep breath, standing perfectly still, like a statue. Seconds turn to minutes before the third strike comes, but he was ready.

In a flash, he leaps above the creature's reach. Afterwards, he comes down on top of it, landing on its back, crashing it to the ground. He jumps away, allowing the creature to stand. Instead of being on all fours, the creature stands on its legs up right. Although the trees block out most of the light, Dylon can see one thing, it's eyes. It's as if they were the night sky through two views, the glow giving the outline of the alien-like eyes.

He also notices the creature's tail, moving into view. It slams it to the ground, moving part of the earth with ease. Suddenly, the creature charges with blinding speed, catching Dylon off guard. It grabs him by the head, moving him side to side. He sees the tail preparing to strike. He dodges each strike, side to side, backing his body away, before he manages to grab a hold of the creature by its shoulders. As he does, he feels a sharp pain in his palms, like grabbing a porcupine. He tries to ignore the pain and prepares to toss the creature into the tree.

As it's lifted into the air, it wriggles free from his grasp and crawls onto his back. It sinks its teeth into his left shoulder. Dylon roars in pain before running towards one of the trees. As he jumps to it, he turns to face his back to it, hitting the creature against the tree. As it falls off, he grabs it by the tail and slams him to the ground like a rag doll. After the fifth slam, he tosses it into the branches. The force of impact braking most of them, now falling onto him. Dylon pushes aside the branches, which no longer block any sunlight. He searches for the creature, only to find it behind him. It tackles him down, striking with its claw at his eyes. Suddenly, it stops.

Dylon looks up in shock, now that he could see what he was fighting. The creature backs away, just as shocked as Dylon. Its appearance becomes clear. Male, his skin was a dull gray and light blue, patches of armor of darker colors covering his back, shoulders, knees, crotch, and parts of his feet. His back, aside from the armor, was covered in small, sharp quills. Dylon looks to his hands to find a few stuck in them, explaining the sharp pain. His tail was plain, like his skin, the tip of it having bizarre, glowing growths, emitting an orange light. Finally, his face, almost the same as Dylon, minus a few features. Darker, more thorn-like hair, and younger

Dylon is baffled, he couldn't move himself at all, except for his eyes, examining the creature. The creature is in the same boat, for good reasons. Neither have met someone like each other before. He begins to slowly walk towards Dylon, caution in every step. He stops, only a few feet away from him. He turns his head sideways, more curious than before. Dylon hesitates, but manages to extend his arm forward. The creature jumps back with caution. Dylon continues to struggle, but manages to say a few words. "Please…, wait…, I don't want to fight anymore."

The creature stares at him for awhile before walking closer and taking his hand as a sign of good will. It's amazing that they were fighting each other only moments ago, as if to the death. To his surprise, the creature replies with obvious confusion. "I never thought… I'd see… you."

Dylon is shocked, but continues speaking to him. "You were… expecting me?"

"No, none of this. The fight, the other 'beings', none of it. Especially… you."

Dylon releases his hand. "I feel the same, but I don't understand. You're…"

"My names Jacob," Jacob gives a quick wave of his hand.

"Dylon," Dylon replies "it's nice to…," he couldn't finish.

"See me?"

"No, I'm not sure how to feel. But… something about you seems… familiar."

Jacob thinks for a second, his attitude lightens and more curious. "...Maybe we're… brothers." His response surprises Dylon. "We look the same, it wouldn't be too long a stretch."

Dylon doesn't answer. His thoughts were repeating that word over and over, _brother_.

Soon, flashes start to appear, vague,nothing obvious, but he could see Jacob in them. They weren't memories, but they weren't flashes of any future, they didn't feel like it. Suddenly, flashes of other people appear. A small girl, eyes an ominous red, a large man with a mask, a child of viral potential. None of it makes sense. Soon, they stop, Dylon comes back to reality to see a confused Jacob. "Dilon or… whatever, are you alright?"

"Yes, and it's Dylon."

They stand there for some time before deciding to walk back to the beach. Suddenly, they realize what they left behind during their chase, a fight between their groups. They soon begin running like their lives depended on it, not theirs though.


	14. One Big Happy Family

Scott stands by the boat, Helena behind him, unconscious against it. The two creatures stand a few yards away from them. Both sides wait for each other to make the next move. Suddenly, the creatures look up towards the top of the boat and begin backing away. Scott isn't sure what they're worried about, until he looks up to see another creature. It's eyes a dark red, looking down on him. The creature begins moving boards on top of the ship down towards the beach, making a platform to get down. As it gets off, it begins walking towards him, showing no fear or worry. Scott is about to let loose, but as it gets closer, he could see it in more detail. It's an adolescent girl, with long silver hair, wearing only a plain white gown. As she gets closer, he can see her extended belly, like a pregnant woman's. Scott stands there, doing nothing as she kneels down in front of Helena. Helena begins to stir. She opens her eyes to see the girl, face to face. For all she knew, she was probably out cold, dreaming this up, but it was all too real.

Suddenly, Dylon and Jacob jump out from the forest. They stand in between the two groups for a while, thinking a fight was about to break out. The girl calls to Jacob in a calming voice, like nothing is wrong. "Jacob, is that you? I can't see far."

He turns and rushes to her side, taking her hand and slowly leading her to the other side of the boat, away from the others. The two creatures abandon the group to join them, leaving Dylon, Scott, and Helena in confusion. Dylon starts walking over the to the group, seeing the two creatures huddled around Jacob and the girl. He can hear him speak to her clearly. "Sen, I told you to wait on the boat, it's not safe yet."

The girl turns to see Dylon, barely a few feet away from them before turning back to Jacob. "I didn't hear anymore fighting. So I thought it was safe."

"Please, next time just wait for me to get you. I worry you know." He holds her hands clutched in his own. She plants a kiss on his cheek before looking back at Dylon. "Who's that?"

Jacob turns to see his 'brother' standing behind the larger creature. "Excuse me?" he says, releasing her hands and walking towards Dylon. "Is there a house or something, so we can talk."

"Y-yes, my home is a short distance away, follow me."

"Okay, but let me get everyone ready first."

Jacob jumps back onto the boat for a while before walking out with another adolescent girl. Her skin was a dark gray, different areas of her body covered in plants, even her hair looked like leaves. On her back, a strange growth protruded, like a backpack. They jump down with ease. They, along with the two creatures and the girl, follow Dylon. Scott is in the back of the group, helping Helena keep up.

As they get closer to the mansion, Scott and Helena can see the two creatures more clearly. The large creature was a male, his eyes and most of his head are covered by a medieval helmet. He wore an armored vest, leather pants, and gauntlets concealing large blades each. On his back, a strange growth riggles, healed from the damage inflicted onto it. The other was another girl, younger than the other two. Her hair was short, pale-yellow. She appears to have six insect-like eyes, two large ones, two smaller pairs along each side of her head. Her body is a bizarre mix of human-like attributes with insect-like limbs. She has two pairs of arms, one large pair with three clawed fingers, the other pair smaller, located closer to her ribs. Small wings and strange antenne sprout from her back, and her lower jaw had a divide in the middle, appearing to be able to separate and open.

In all honesty, Helena wasn't sure about these people. Then again, her new family aren't too normal either. As long as Dylon trusts them, she does too. After their arrival, Dylon opens the door to be greeted by Deborah, who was worried sick. She hugs him for about a minute or two before realizing the people he brought. She whispers something in his ear. He gives a reassuring nod before letting go and escorting them in. After some explanations, most of it becomes clear. Jacob and Sen, along with Alexia, Gregore, and Lotus, were traveling across most of the world. About a day ago, Jacob had a strange feeling, something guiding him in the direction of the island without even knowing it. Once they landed, they felt the presence of other beings, and with their experience, they decided to fight before any communication could be made. As far as anyone know and care, Jacob and Dylon are brothers. Sen is Jacob's beloved, pregnant with, what they could guess, two babies. Also, from their home, a rural village in the remote forests of Europe, they are seen as rulers. Jacob explains that Sen once had a form of "immature queen-plaga", which was removed, do to adverse side-effects on her. However, she still carries, and produces, a great number of plaga parasites, along with dominant-strain plagas. Do to their mutations, Jacob and Alexia were immune to any plaga, meaning no risk of infestation.

After their encounter with a man named Wesker, they returned to the village. The people no longer feared her, instead, saw her and Jacob as the king and queen of the land. They, along with Alex and a man named Ruven, made the place their new home. On their exploration of the land and the island lab, they discovered early prototypes of the creatures. Men, women, and children, all deformed and most dead, with Gregore and Lotus the only survivors of the experiments. Both were in cryogenic storage, and once released, saw Sen as queen also.

As years went, they grew fond of the people, Jacob even mentioned Ruvens attempt of training any remaining Militia. Dylon wanted to ask where this Ruven was, but rather waited for him to finish. Jacob says they spend much of their time traveling the world, anything to make his queen happy. Their travels brought them to Dylon's home and, you know the rest.

After the story, Jacob asks if Dylon has any spare rooms, which was obvious now. He escorts Sen to the largest room he could find. She rests in the bed, Gregore and Lotus standing by her side. Dylon knows she would be safe and left the room. He goes to his medical herd room, Helena sits on the table with Scott and Piers and her side, tending to her injuries.

"How is she?" Dylon asks.

"She's fine," Piers replies, "a few bruises and scrapes, nothing serious. All she needs is some rest."

Without warning, Jacob walks in behind Dylon and is amazed by the types of herbs he had. "Wow, interesting medicine, and natural too."

Dylon replies "Well, it's not that natural. I create serums from modern medicine and feed that to the plants."

"Still nice though."

Jacob looks pass Dylon and notices Piers and Scott, along with their mutations. He looks back to Dylon. "I see you have others here, that's nice of you, playing grounds keeper or something?" he says, nudging Dylon in the arm with his elbow. Dylon blinks in surprise. "You're very… peculiar, but I'm glad he finally meet you 'brother'."

"Same here, 'hermano'." Jacob replies.

They both laugh a little before walking out, leaving the two soldiers to watch over Helena. "He seems nice." Scott says. "You think they're really brothers?."

Piers replied, "Well with that face, it's hard to say no."

They both chuckle and stay silent for a few seconds before Scott adds "Captain Piers, why was Lisa on top of you?"

Piers gives no response, Leaving Scott to answer that. "That was stupid to ask now, wasn't it?"

As Dylon is escorting Jacob to his room, Jacob feels something on his back. He looks back to see Maya clinging on to him, where did she come from? He reaches around to grab her and holds her in front of him. "You not daddy," she says.

"Okay," Jacob says confused, "What are you?"

She frees herself from his grip and pulls on her father's leg. "Daddy, who he?"

Dylon gives a playful smile before picking her up and holding her in his right arm. "Sweety, this is my brother, he's family." He steps closer to Jacob, close enough for Maya to reach him with her hands. "Brother?... Aunty!" she says, trying to hug Jacob, who is annoyed a little. Dylon puts her down so she could hug her "Aunty".

"Actually...uh…" Jacob says, not knowing her name.

"Maya," she says, pointing at herself.

Jacob continues, "Maya, that's what you call your parent's sister. A brother is an 'uncle', okay?"

She thinks for a moment before saying "Uncle!" while hugging him again. Jacob begins to feel happy, as if an interesting grin on his face.

"Jacob," Dylon asks, "what's with the smile?"

"Oh," he replies, "I'm just thinking. Soon I will have an ankle hugger like this."

Dylon realizes that Jacob is referring to Sen, who appears to be close to childbirth. Dylon ponders at the thought of his children. With Deborah and himself, it was somewhat clear what their children would be like. However, Sen isn't a viral Bio-Sentient, she's parasitic. None of that would matter though, no matter the result, he knows Jacob would be joyed by the sight of his children.

A thought pops in Dylon's head. "Jacob, I was meaning to ask. Who is Ruven?"

Jacob looks to his brother and remembers he never explained who Ruven was, or Alex exactly. They head towards the library where Jacob explains to Dylon.

"Ruven was, literally, the first person I met. He was an experiment, locked away, after years of tests, just left to die. I don't know why I did what I did at the time, but I saved him with a serum my body produces, which reacted with the virus in him. The resulting mutations were enhanced strength, speed, size, intelligence, and regenerative abilities."

Dylon couldn't believe how his brother, at the first hours of life, would want to help Ruven. However, he thought to himself, if he saw someone like him just rotting away, he would help too.

Jacob continues. "After we escaped, we traveled to world, either doing what I wanted or what he wanted. In his case, hunting down and killing those involved with the people or corporation that did this to him. Years later, we met Sen and Alex, who were also in the same predicament. Once they were free like us, we lived a life like a family, helping each other, caring for each other, protecting each other, one big, happy, bizarre, and slightly psychotic family. Although, I think dealing with three kids took its toll on Ruven. I hope that answers your question."

"One last thing," Dylon replies, "what happened to Ruven, where is he?"

"Well," Jacob answers, "he's somewhere out there. We would separate from time to time, less than a day. I don't know what's keeping him, but trust me, he will be here soon."


	15. The Island's Nature

It has been a day since Leon left the hospital to find a way to save Helena and Hunnigan, if he can. Without any help from the agency or the B.S.A.A., Leon heads for a nearby ship rental to rent a boat to travel to their last known coordinates. The dock was empty of any people, no birds, no rental clerks, nothing. He walks down the dock, looking for any signs of people. He begins to feel like he's being turns in a flash, only to see the only ship rental clerk on the dock.

"Excuse me sir," he says, sounding nervous, "Are you looking to find means of transportation?"

"Yes," Leon replies, "I just need a small boat for a quick trip."

"A simple boat, yes, come come, follow me please."

Leon is glad to have found someone, but something doesn't feel right, yet it wasn't the man's attitude. He still felt like he was being watched. The ship clerk stops in front of a medium to large ship. Before Leon could say anything, the boat clerk says "You know what, it's my first time renting out one of my boats. How about I make it free for my first customer."

Leon is confused by how generous the man was. Unfortunately, he's in a hurry and takes the offer. As he goes off, the man falls to his knees, as if he has done something terribly wrong. Under his breath he mutters "Have mercy on his soul."

It's been a few hours since Leon left the dock. He stops the boat for a minute to go over the coordinates. Suddenly, the non existent eyes fell on him again. He couldn't shake the feeling and decides to search the boat. Nothing in the rooms, no sign of any cameras on board either. Suddenly, as Leon searched the bow, he hears a large splash in the water. He slowly walks towards the railing to look over the edge, only to be greeted by him ,Ruven. He grips the ropes on the sides of the boat and pulls himself on board. As he stands, Leon pulls out his gun and shoots several rounds into his chest.

"You'd think people learn by now," Ruven says. He charges for Leon and pins him to the mast of the ship.

"Remind me to thank that guy for leading you to me," Ruven says. It becomes clear to Leon. The man was forced to give him the ship so Ruven could capture him. He wonders if Ruven killed anyone else in that area. He tries to reach for his radio, but Ruven yanks it off saying "No back up this time."

He tosses Leon to the ground before continuing. "The only reason I'm keeping you alive is so I have 'bait for my hook', if you know what I mean."

Leon looks up to Ruven with a grin and replies "You got that right, if I'm bait, then you're the catch."

Without warning, small boats appear in the distance, the B.S.A.A. symbol on the side. As they come up to the side of the boat, B.S.A.A. soldiers, along with Chris, climb over the sides and surround Ruven. Their small boats are tied to the ship by the railing. Each soldier has their gun trained on Ruven's head. Chris stands in the circle, facing Ruven as he looks up from Leon. "It's over," Chris orders, "come in quietly, or we'll make sure you don't get back up again."

Ruven stands there for a moment, looking down to the ground. When he looks back up, his eyes show murderous intent as he starts to chuckle. Without warning, he rushes one of the soldiers, grabbing him by the leg, and using him as a flail. He swings him around, bashing him against the mast, the bow, and other soldiers. His blood stains each part of the boat before Ruven lets his body go and runs for the other boats. Before he could jump off, Chris regains his balance and fires a grapple hook attachment on his gun at Ruven. The hook penetrates Ruven through the chest and hooks onto him. Soon the other soldiers, still standing, do the same.

Ruven stands in the center of the boat, soldiers struggling to stay in control. Chris manages to pull Leon to safety during the confusion. He stands up and looks at Chris. "I'll be honest, I didn't think this would have worked."

"Remember," Chris replies, "we'll need to head back to shore to contain him before we can search for Hunnigan and Helena."

Suddenly, the ship begins to shake. Leon realizes that Ruven started up the boat again before the B.S.A.A. soldiers arrived. They have been heading towards the coordinates this whole time. He soon realizes they are on the spot. Ruven stops struggling and looks off into the distance. Leon and Chris see what he's looking towards, an island. The boat continues to shake, more and more violently. No one knows what's causing this disturbance. Then, it happens. A large tentacle shoots out of the water and destroys the boats. Everything after was a blank.

Chris awakens from his coma. The sun beginning to set, leading him to question how long he was out. Around him, he can see what's left of his team and Leon, along with what remains of the boats. Everyone begins to awaken, gathering what supplies they had and tending to whoever is too injured to stand or move. Everyone was find, any others have either died or sunk in the water. "Leon," Chris says as rushes towards him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, but where's Ruven?"

"I don't know, but we need to find some way to contact headquarters." Chris stands and faces his team. "Everyone, listen, as far as we know, we have no way of contacting headquarters. Don't panic, what we'll do is split into two groups. One will stay and see if anything here can be used to send some kind of signal. The other, along with me and Leon, will search the island center for any signs of civilization or anything that washed up from the boats, clear?"

The soldiers give an all clear and split up. Of them, including Leon and Chris, there were eight, two accompany Chris and Leon while four remain.

It has been about an hour now, the sun has set, and Chris's group struggles to navigate the forest-like jungle of the island. Every inch was covered in plant material or roots. As their search continues, it becomes clear to them that this was no ordinary island. As they search, one of the two soldiers stops and calls for Chris. "Captain, look at this."

Chris kneels down next to the soldier and sees strange tracks in the mud. They were large, about the size of a face, with imprints of two large fingers. The tracks resemble nothing neither Chris nor Leon have ever seen. Suddenly, they hear noises from deeper in the jungle. Leon notices what Chris was looking at and stands next to him. "I don't think we're alone out here," he says. Chris stands and primes his assault rifle. The noises grow louder and louder. The four now stand in a circle, waiting for something to jump out. Strangely, as the noises inch closer and closer, they suddenly stop.

At first, they thought whatever it was passed, until a strange object falls from one of the trees. One of the soldiers jump back in horror. It was one of the other soldiers, or what's left of him, from the beach. Chris kneels down to examine the wounds, none of them were anything that Ruven has done. The wounds appear to be made by an animal. Chris reforms the circle and tries to calm his men. "Listen, what did this must have taken them by surprise. Just stay together and focus. We'll head back to the beach for any survivors, clear?"

Before either Leon or the his men could respond, one of them is knocked down. Chris tries to react, but only manages to see him be dragged away by something. Without warning, Chris runs after him. Leon tries to stop him, but it was too late. Soon, the three start running towards the direction the soldier was dragged in. The noises drown out any the three could make. They started running down hill, becoming so steep that Chris couldn't slow his momentum and trips, rolling down the hill. He comes crashing down on a pile of broken branches and bones. He stands up and scouts the area. His vision come upon the soldier who was dragged away. When he tries to help him, it was too late. His lower half was gone, including most of his organs.

He kneels down for a moment in silence and closes the soldier's eyes. Suddenly, he hears footsteps behind him. He turns to see Ruven, holding a large branch with blood at the other end. Chris aims his gun at him in anger. "What the hell did you do?!"

"Blame me for everything," Ruven replies, "is that your first thought?"

Chris unloads all his ammo, but to no avail. Ruven only stands there, waiting for him to stop. When the shots turn to blank clicks, he continues. "As I was saying, I didn't do this. Something is out there, watching, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I could've kept walking, but I wanted to see the look on your face," he starts walking up the hill, "See ya."

From the top of the hill, Leon and the remaining soldier see what has happened and train their guns on Ruven. He gives them no response, like they were nothing. As he walks by, they do nothing, knowing it would be futile. Before disappearing behind the trees, Ruven turns around to face Chris. "Be careful, I'm not the thing you should be worried about right now."

Then, he disappears in the foliage. Leon tries to catch up, only to see nothing. They regroup with Chris, who is still angered by all this. All the damage Ruven caused. He then realizes what has happened. "He knew." he says.

"What do you mean?" Leon asks.

"He knew we were following him, using you as bait, everything, just to get here." He pauses for a moment before continuing. "Now, what _IS_ here?"


	16. A Familiar Face

Ruven dashes through the forest, evading unknown attackers. The sounds of growls and trees shaking follow behind him. He has know idea what they are. But, he does know, they aren't nice. He turns on a dime and swings his branch at one of the creatures, knocking it to the ground. The adrenaline makes it unclear to him what he's fighting, but none of that matters. He continues running.

After about ten minutes, he finally comes to a clearing, a rocky shore near the ocean. The pause doesn't last for long as the creatures gather at the edge of the forest. As Ruven prepares to fight, he notices they don't go beyond the dirt, like something is keeping them from moving closer. He sighs in relief, having only a branch as a weapon. The crash caused him to lose his machete in the water. He decides to search the shoreline for any signs of it.

As he advances towards where the crash site is, he stops to find a rock wall blocking the path. Frustrated by the inconvenience, he decides to search the other direction, hoping to find it here. Time passes, he feels that he has been walking for hours, but that was only the lack of any evidence of time moving. Without any sense of time, the sun still setting, what feels like hours could only be minutes, and exhaustion takes its toll. In the distance, he notices something moving near the shore line. A large, familiar shape, the ship, his ship. As he moves closer, he notices a strange fog gathering around him.

Soon, he struggles to see more than a few feet ahead of himself. It was as if the fog blotted out the sun, leaving only a gray view of everything. He manages to locate the boat and climbs aboard. He feels no presence aboard the ship, but continues searching for something. He comes upon a hatch set in front of the steering wheel below it. He locates a handle and opens the hatch, proceeding to jump inside. The room was somewhat large, the walls lined with different blades, handles, spikes, and any tool that could be used as a weapon. He looks upon a lantern, hanging from the roof in the center, and lights it. He scans the walls for a minute before looking upon a second machete, stained with blood all over the edge. He pulls it off and hops off the boat to the ground.

Suddenly, as he stands up, he hears a voice speak to him. "Is it necessary to have something like that?"

He turns on a dime to face a familiar figure in the distance. Ruven sighs in relief, thinking he knows who it is. "Hehe, don't scare me like that. I'll be honest, this place gives me the creeps, and not for what's out there." He responds.

"This 'creepy place' is my home," the figure says, moving closer, revealed to be Dylon to Ruven. "What, who are you?!" Ruven says, priming his weapon. Dylon gives no emotional response and walks closer to him. "Calm down, I don't want to fight. Look," Dylon pauses to hold up his hands before continuing. "I have no weapons, I just want to talk."

Ruven decides to let his guard down and moves closer to Dylon. They stand a few feet from each other, but Dylon could see Ruven's enormous stature. He only comes up to Ruven's shoulders. Ruven holds his left hand behind his back while Dylon tries to speak. Without warning, Ruven swings the branch out with all his force, smashing it against Dylon's head. However, Dylon doesn't move an inch or flinches, this catches Ruven off guard. Dylon charges and tries to take him down, tackling him in the stomach, but it has similar results. Ruven looks down at him. "You're not the only mutant with power," he grabs him by his sides, lifting him upside down, and slamming his torso into the ground. He backs away, thinking he was victorious. But, on closer inspection, Dylon recovers, pulling his body out, showing no pain or damage.

Ruven couldn't believe what he saw, he never encountered anyone like this,then again, Dylon is far from anyone. "Let's try this again," Dylon says, charging again, but this time, slamming his fist into Ruven's stomach. At first, Ruven shows no response, but mere seconds later, he collapses, holding his stomach in pain as he groans. Dylon backs off for a moment. Suddenly, Ruven begins to laugh, like it was a joke. He stands back up and looks to him. "Impressive," he says, "I never thought anyone else could hurt me that much."

Dylon retreats from his fighting stance. "Listen, I don't want to fight. It's just that… you took me off guard."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Ruven replies, "if I knew you were this strong, I would have kept talking. So, what do you want?" He places his machete in its sheath and awaits Dylon's answer. "First, are you the one they call Ruven?"

"Yes."

"Second, do you want to fight?"

"That depends if I have any chances of killing you. In this case…, maybe, but I don't like those odds."

"Lastly, is anyone else here with you?"

"No."

Dylon can sense he's lying. Ruven can see it in his eyes that lying is not an option, so he tells the truth. "Honestly, I'm not sure if the 'others' are still alive, not with those things out there. So why don't you send that sniper out there to see if they're still breathing."

Dylon flinches for a second. He knows Piers was out there, yet still chose to attack. Dylon never would have known he would meet someone like Ruven. He turns around and gestures for Piers to search the area. Piers moves from his spot and hurries. As Dylon turns back, Ruven stands right in front of him. He didn't know he would be this fast either. Moments turn to seconds, soon minutes, before Dylon speaks. "Follow me, Jacob is waiting inside."

"And who are you exactly?" Ruven asks.

"I'm his brother."


	17. Time has Come (Piers)

Piers, along with Scott and Hunter, rush through the forest in search of whoever is out in this hazardous landscape. They were safe, but for anyone without protection or any knowledge of this terrain, they would be dead already. When Ruven came to the rocky shore, they thought they were hidden and could watch what he did. Anything before that, they had know idea. Even if he likely killed any survivors, they still needed to know.

Ten minutes pass, they manage to find Ruven's trail, luckily the ground was muddy and made for easy prints. The group happen upon a steep hill heading down to what appears to be a nest. Bones and branches littered the ground, including the dead B.S.A.A. soldiers. The group stand around him in silence, realizing who were out here. Suddenly, a large growl comes from the trees above them. They look up to see a monstrous creature. It was larger than a human, its body hunched as it jumped to the ground. Hairless with blotches of greens, browns, and blacks to camouflage in the trees, its limbs long and flexible. Its head was large, having needle sharp teeth and a pointed chin. Without any eyes, it relies on any other senses to maneuver and hunt in their world. Scott aims his gun, but Piers places his hand in front of him as he whispers. "Wait, don't shoot. It's a nest, just back out and continue searching."

Scott nods and the group begin backing away. The creature keeps its body between them and the area. As they get further and further away, the creature begins to calm down before heading back into the trees. Piers directs Hunter and Scott to head around while he stays to make sure it doesn't follow. As they run off, the other sounds of the forest become clear to him, even the sounds of moaning. At first, he thought it was an animal, but as the moans continue, it sounded more and more human. He follows the noises the opposite direction of the nest. To his shock, he comes upon those he never thought he would see again, Chris and Leon.

He steps back, they are here, after so many years, he finally reunites with _HIS_ Captain. The creatures from the nest come out of hiding and surround him. After what he has been through, every second, every minute, every day he waited, he wasn't going to let these wild creatures stop him. He drops his gun and starts focusing on his right hand. The cloth around it starts to move, violently, his arm becoming larger and starting to mutate. The right side of his face starts turning red. Smaller extra eyes begin to grow from the red area. He screams as his arm bursts forth as a red mass of bone protrusions and electricity. With one strike to the ground, he causes a field of static to burst forth around him. The creatures become startled, some caught up and flung away with great force, and back away.

Piers begins to relax, now only standing in the same spot. He looks down to his arm in worry, hoping he'd never see _IT_ again. He looks to his "Captain" in horror, he's awake. He saw what he did, and saw who we was, all before falling unconscious again.


	18. Time Has Come (Chris)

Ruven left them to their fate. The creatures gather around them, enraged that they are in their nest. Chris couldn't believe what he was seeing, more than two dozen of them looking down on them from the trees, itching for a fight. The remaining soldier feels as though this was the end and went all out. He shoots his gun haphazardly all above him, the creatures disperse and manage to get to the ground past his panic attack. What Chris witnesses after that was unforgettable. They tear the soldier limb from limb within a few seconds, taking pieces of him to the top. What was left was a small puddle of blood, nothing more, nothing less.

Leon managed to pull him out of his trance and yells "RUN!"

They sprint for the top of the hill, in hopes of avoiding the same fate. One creature stands in Chris's way. He tries shooting it, but it moves in a flash, dodging each shot. It lunges for him. He manage to duck in time, right below the creature grabs him, and tosses it towards the bottom of the hill. They manage to reach the top and start running, but one comes out of nowhere and swats Leon against Chris. He falls to the ground, unconscious, oblivious to the creature preparing to kill him. Chris lets out a loud "NO!" before shooting the creature. It was too preoccupied with Leon to notice and was hit.

Chris empties his whole clip, but the creature still stands. It limps towards him, only to go pass him and ends up falling back into the nest, having others carrying it out. Suddenly, all is quiet, nothing happens. It was as if they disappeared. Chris frantically aids Leon, only to see one charge out of nowhere and bash him against the tree. He lays there next to him, falling in and out of unconsciousness. In their situation ,there was no escape. He hopes the comma sets in so he wouldn't know his fate. Suddenly, he was in blackness, only to awaken and look in shock, Piers.

Nothing could prepare him for what Piers did, static shoots out of him and repels the creatures. The last thing he can see is his expression as he looks down on him. He is soon unconscious again.


	19. The Grand Reunion (Pt 1)

Calm returns to the land. The day soon comes to a close. Piers and his team return with the only two survivors, Leon and Chris. The rest of the day is spent treating their wounds, any remaining time goes by in a flash. Soon, everyone gathers in the mansion, Piers and his team, along with the others at base camp, Dylon and his family, Jacob and his group, Helena, Hunnigan, even Ruven, recuperating in one of the many rooms. Piers sits in his room, Lisa resting her head in his lap. Although his arm returned to its normal shape, he has no bandages to cover it. He is left staring at it, still red and with small growths around it.

He waited so long to finally see his Captain, no, his friend, and when the time came, it was at its worst. Chris's life revolves around fighting B.O.W. s, and he was greeted by Piers, who is now one of them. He doesn't have a single thought to how Chris will react to all this, let alone if he would reveal their existence. Dylon has helped him through so much for the past few the world that has been going on in the middle of the ocean would be devastating. What would happen to him, his family, all of them, no cure could help them. He lets a tear run down his face and onto Lisa. She looks up and sees the sadness in his face. "Piers sad?" she says as she moves up next to him.

"I don't know," he replies, "what if this was a mistake, letting Chris stay? Maybe we should have tried to take them back."

"What if… they… died?"

"I know Lisa, but I don't want anything to happen to… everyone, the B.S.A.A. wouldn't just let this go."

With that, she wraps her arms around him to try and comfort him in some way. This feeling he has, the same kind in the beginning, and Lisa was there to help him. The memories flash before his eyes, but he wasn't dying, he was still breathing.

* * *

It had been a month since he awoke, seeing what he has become. Seeing how Scott was in the same boat as himself didn't help. Piers felt like an outcast, not to them, but to everyone in the world. He knew Dylon meant well, but it didn't help him, the thoughts of being seen like this by his friends, family, and especially the B.S.A.A., was always on the mind. He decided to go walking through the forest. Dylon was unsure of most of it at the time. He would see material and large debris wash up onto shore, followed by the unknown creatures taking the junk inland.

Piers found the clearest natural path and strolled down it. The plants and trees became more unfamiliar as he went. Suddenly, the sounds of rustling in the bushes startled him. Nothing dangerous ever came close to Dylon's mansion, however, Piers wasn't sure how far he was, maybe too far. The rustling grew louder and louder. He pulled out his knife, the only weapon he had, and came face to face with one of the strange creatures.

It was a large one, about the size of a rhino, its body a mix of light and dark greens. Spikes spread haphazardly all over its back as it walked on all fours with clawed feet. Its head was elongated, showing red eyes, and its tail had a stinger-like weapon on the end of it. Piers stood his ground. The creature noticed him and growled at him, opening its mouth. As it did, the lower law split into two halves with teeth on the divide, its long tongue out stretched, before closing it.

Before he did anything, he heard footsteps, as if someone running towards him. On the other side of the creature, he could see Lisa in the distance, running towards him. Before he could respond, she stopped about ten feet from the creature. She began doing gestures that meant "stop." Piers hesitated for a moment, but did as she wanted. As he put the knife away, the creature became less hostile, going about its business of eating the plants on the path. He sighed in relief as Lisa worked her way around the creature.

Piers continued on his stroll, accompanied by Lisa. They soon came upon a small pond, its banks were surrounded by strange plants. However, as they came closer, the plants were revealed to be giant insects, acting like plants, retreating into the water. Piers sat down near the shore, Lisa did so too. He looked down into the water to be greeted by his reflection, his new face. He proceeded to splash it away in anger. Lisa felt worried for him. "Piers… okay?" she asked.

He looked up at her and she saw tears in his face. "Look at me," he began, "I'm a freak, I'm an outcast, I'm nothing. I've lost everyone I cared about because of this." He pointed to his mutations on his right arm and face. "I can't go back home, if I did, I would either be killed or worse, seen as just an experiment. No one wants me, NO ONE!"

With that, he began to calm down, but noticed Lisa standing up. He saw that she was now crying, before she ran off into the forest. "Lisa, wait!" he said, realizing what he said was too painful. She and everyone else here were like him, especially Lisa. She always tried to help him, talk with him, do what she could. Calling himself, and essentially everyone else, a freak did nothing to help. He shouldn't have taken his anger out on them, they tried to make the best of their second chance, instead of him feeling sadness for the past. He ran after her to try and apologize.

After about half an hour of searching, he finally found her, sitting on top of a mound. As he tried to get her attention, something knocked him away. He fell back in great force. He looked up to see a hunter, the reptilian creatures of Umbrella in the past, still deadly as ever. As he tried reaching for his knife, he found it to be gone, probably knocked out in the attack. The hunter gave a loud roar before charging. He dodged it as it swiped him with its giant clawed hands. Even with his military training, he would need more to stand any chance of even fending off this creature. It charged again, this time landing a blow. As he tried to dodge, one of the claws hit him in the side. He backed away, covering the wound as it began bleeding. He kneeled down in pain, the hunter walking closer to him, knowing he's weak.

Suddenly, Lisa bursted from the bushes and landed a blow onto the hunter's head with her hands. As it stumbled back, disorientated, large tentacles sprouted out of Lisa's back and went for the creature. In a single second, the body of the hunter was riddled with holes, it fell to the ground, dead. The tentacles retreated and Lisa came down next to Piers. The virus in his body soon healed his wound. Before he could thank her, he saw her crying face. "Lisa," he said, "look, I'm sorry about what I said, I didn't mean any of it. I was angry and…"

He stopped, realizing she wasn't listening. He could hear her mumbling under her breath. "Mom dead… dad dead… no one loves me… no one…"

Piers realized she wasn't sad about what he said, it was how he brought up her memories, how she was shown no care and was just an experiment, a guinea pig, for so many years. His words did hurt, but not the way he thought. He knew what she was saying wasn't true, none of it, at least, not anymore. He snapped her out of it and looked her in the eyes. "Lisa, that's not true. I...I… like you. Dylon and his family cares for you. They like you too. We look out for each other now."

She stopped crying and began to speak. "You… love me?"

Piers began to feel embarrassed, but that didn't matter now. "Uh… yes… I… love you."

"You… love love?" she asked again.

He tried to let it pass, but it wouldn't. With all the time he spent on the island, with her, he felt something. Maybe it was the peace, maybe it was the virus, maybe he did feel something for her. Either way, he did.

"...Yes, I love you." he replied.

She then wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. He didn't try pushing away because he knew she needed him right now. At first, he was unclear as to what she meant entirely, since she'd always acted strange around him when she helped. But that was soon clear to him about how she felt. She moved her head off his shoulder, and proceeded to kiss him. She pecked him once on the lips, soon returning it tenfold, locking lips. Lisa was caught off guard, but by a different force driving her, she kissed back. They stayed like that for some time, no stop to catch their breath, just the moment that lasted an eternity.

* * *

Piers came back to reality, feeling most of his pain was gone, but his worries still remained.

Inside the designated medical room. Chris and Leon lay unconscious on top of two tables. Chris begins to wake up, realizing where he is. At the corner of his eye, he can see a woman. He long black hair drawn into a ponytail. Her skin was plain, nothing out of the ordinary. She wore a basic red shirt and color-withered jeans, the right side of her clothes having large openings for something. She turns around and sees him trying to get up, but he's too weak to do so. She comes over to him and has him lay back down. "Rest," she say in an unknown accent. "You need rest for a while."

Chris manages to speak. "Who… who are you?"

"Just a medic doing her best to help."

"Your a medic?"

"Yes, I'm medic for Piers's team."

"Wait, PIERS, BUT…," Chris says, stopping as images flash. He recalls what he saw before blacking out. He stays quiet for a moment before continuing. "...So that wasn't a dream, he's still alive."  
"Yes, by the way, my name is Ustonia." she says. Chris looks around the room for a moment.

"Where am I? What the hell is this place?!"

"This is our place, our land, and he worried you would be here."

"Wait, you mean Piers, why?"

"Look back at what you saw and think."

Chris is surprised that she knows he saw him, and it becomes clear… well almost.

"... I need some questions answered," he says.

Ustonia explains almost everything, excluding Dylon and his family. About Piers, the others, and what they have been doing, all while hiding from the B.S.A.A..

"I don't understand," Chris says, "why would he hide from us, I would want to help him."

He begins standing up, the adrenaline caused by this starts giving him the strength to move.

"It far from your help," she replies. "The virus bonded to him. Curing him might end up killing him. Besides, he feared your opinion wouldn't matter, and that he and everyone else here would be killed. He's in room right now, wishing for this time to both come and never happen."

Chris understands now, his opinion wouldn't matter on a scale like this, what this place represents.

After a while, he looks her in the eyes and says "Take me to him."

She doesn't hesitate to do so.

In the room, Lisa tries to calm Piers's mind, although right now, this isn't the best of times to do what they are doing. She lays on top of him, her breath becoming loud and heavy, as his too as they lock lips. Before any moans come, Piers hears footsteps behind the door. He tries to stop Lisa, but she isn't as focused as he is. Chris ends up walking in, taking them both by surprise. Lisa immediately stops and backs away. Neither shock nor joy comes from their encounter at last, instead, awkward silence for a minute. Chris manages to break to silence, "Piers...uh…," that was all that was needed to continue.

"Captain, I'm glad to see you again, but…"

"It's okay," Chris interrupts, "I understand, Ustonia explained everything."

Piers sees that the moment has come, what Chris thinks about all this. Suddenly, Chris puts his hand on his shoulder and says "we'll deal with this later. Right now, I'm glad to see your still alive."

With that, Piers gives his captain a quick hug before backing away in embarrassment, giving a salute instead. However, Chris returns the hug before saluting himself. Before they walk out, Chris whispers to him. "Next time, lock the door, your medic didn't tell me anything about that."

Piers starts turning pink, literal pink.


	20. The Grand Reunion (Pt 2)

Sen sits up on her bed, rubbing her belly. The thoughts of new life, growing within her, gives her happiness and wishes for the future. The door begins to open. She turns to see all of Dylon's kids walking in. First Raph, then Theo, finally Maya, but she wasn't alone. As she walks in, she holds Dimitri by the hands, helping him walk, taking his first steps. Suddenly, Sen notices Deborah is with them. She comes in and sits next to her. "Hello, my name is Deborah, and these are my children."

They all give a friendly hello as she picks up Dimitri to hold him in her arms. But as she does, he begins to wriggle. Instead, he hops out of her arms and onto the bed, moving around on all fours like a puppy. They give a playful chuckle, Sen says "Does he not like that?"

"No, it's that he's growing up so fast, wanting to move around," she sighs. "All my kids were like that. It's something like the 'past the cradle' phase, it's so cute."

"It must be nice," Sen replies, looking back at her belly.

Deborah continues. "You know, my husband was in shock that he found his brother, I'm happy to meet more of my family."

"I feel happy too, especially for Jacob. He would say he would always feel alone without us, Ruven, Alex, and especially me."

"I'm a little surprised, you seem a little young for a mother to be."

"Well I'm almost 18, but it's okay, Jacob does his best to care for me, always wanting to see me happy."

"That's good to hear, any ideas on how many you have?"

"As far as anyone could tell, it's three."

"Three?! That seems a little much."

"I'm okay, Jacob promised to help anyway he can when the time comes."

"If he's anything like Dylon, he'll let the professionals handle it, like Ustonia, and wait outside the door."

They both laugh and continue talking, the children just listening with curiosity, except for Dimitri, he's just moving around.

Dylon and Jacob wander down one of the many halls, accompanied by Ruven. As Jacob tells stories about his life to Dylon, Dylon turns his head back at Ruven. He has a blank expression in his face. "Excuse me," Dylon interrupts Jacob, "this really is… Ruven?"

"Yeah," he replies, "same guy, same looks, same everything."

"Was he… like this… when he found you?"

"Technically, I found him, and no, he looked like a zombie's zombie."

"I'm right here, you know," Ruven adds, joining the conversation. As they walk, they come upon Alex's room. Ruven stops for a moment and knocks on the door. He receives a response. "Come in."

Dylon and Jacob stop to see Ruven walk in. He looks back at them saying "I'll join you in a minute. I want to say hi first."

After he closes the door, Dylon and Jacob begin walking back to the room. "Jacob," Dylon asks, "has Ruven been with you when you started this journey?"

"well," Jacob replies, "he left about a week ago. You actually brought him back."

"He goes out on his own?"

"Yeah, usually for months. But he always comes back. No big deal."

"Why did he leave?"

"Let's just say it was… important."

Dylon decides to enter the room, wanting to know Alex and Ruven more. As he does, he looks in shock. He sees Alex holding a baby in her hands, and it has the same eyes as he and Jacob. Jacob walks around Dylon and sees what he was looking at. Alex looks up from the baby and notices Dylon's expression. "What's wrong?" she asks. Dylon leaves the room with no response, Jacob follows behind. "Dylon, what's wrong?" he asks.

Dylon looks at him with confusion. "I… don't understand."

"What?"

"Is that… your…?"

Dylon pauses for a while before continuing. "I thought Sen… was you wife."

"It's a little complicated, but I'll explain."

Dylon wasn't angry, though very confused. It was clear Sen was his mate, yet Alex had a child that was like them. He thinks that maybe he's jumping to a conclusion. Maybe it was another of them Jacob and the others found. He can see it in his eyes that he means to explain, but maybe he shouldn't just take his word for it. "Jacob, go back to Sen, I want to speak with Alexia."

"Okay," Jacob replies, "but just to let you know, she prefers 'Alex', see ya."

Dylon walks back into Alex's room. The baby is asleep in her arms. She looks to the top of the ceiling towards something. Dylon looks up to see Lotus, hanging in the corner. She jumps down and takes the baby from Alex. Lotus looks to Dylon and asks "are there any cribs for the young one?"

"Yes," Dylon replies, "they're in the rooms down the hall."

With that, she walks out with Ruven following behind, but Alex stops him from leaving. After Lotus leaves, Dylon begins considering what to ask, as he felt this was a delicate topic. Before he could, Alex begins to speak. "I guess you're wondering about the child?"

"Y-yes, where was it when you arrived?"

"First, it's a girl. Second, she was in the pod I had. But that's not why you're here."

Alex understands exactly what Dylon wanted to know. She looks over to Ruven, gesturing for him to speak. He soon understands himself and begins. "It all started like this. About nine months ago, Jacob became… somewhat violent."

"What do you mean?"

"In our spare time, we would spar and fight, just for fun. That's when I noticed him becoming more violent. For a while, he would have headaches, become anxious, and lashing out at rocks, trees, a villager or two. He started acting more like an animal… more than usual. He started to become hostile towards me. Aside from that, he would lie in bed, feeling like shit, a ache that clawed at him every second. Of course, Sen tried to help him."

Alex continues from where Ruven left off. "However, we noticed after 'spending time' with Sen, he would go back to normal."

Dylon interrupts. "I don't understand, what does that mean?"

Alex begins feeling embarrassed, she asks for Ruven to leave, he does so. She continues. "Well… I asked Sen what she was doing to help him and… it's… uh… you know."

Dylon soon realizes what she means. "OH, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

Alex stops him. "No, it's fine, it's just not easy to say. But… well… none of us knew anything about Jacob's mutation."

Dylon stopped her. "From what he said, he was born like that."

"Right, sorry, but from how he was acting, we thought he was… 'maturing'. Only, it didn't just make him more violent, it actually hurted him when he tried to suppress it." Alex stops for a minute.

Dylon says "so what you're saying he was becoming 'active', like an animal during its mating season. That would explain his increased aggression, as you say, but I still don't understand. As far as I can remember, that never happened to me. That being said, I spent most of my time in a tube."

Alex continues. "Well, even though Sen was… helping, it appeared it... wasn't enough. Jacob would act out like before, it even gone as far as hurting himself. It would go on for days and we couldn't stand watching him suffer. That's when Sen asked me to… help."

With that one word, Alex's face turns a bright red, but Dylon begins to understand.

Alex continues.

"Look, I wanted to help, Jacob was getting worse. He wasn't doing anything bad by his own will. I didn't trick him, none of that. Sen asked me, as a friend, her only friend, to help him. I'll be honest, part of me wanted this. They were perfect for each other, they had a connection, but to have a taste of that, and to help him, I agreed. About two weeks later, it stopped, everything was back to normal…, well…, almost."

The room is quiet for some time. Dylon can see it in her eyes, she means what she says. He wouldn't have hated her either way, or Jacob for that matter. Suddenly, the door opens. Dylon turns to see Sen. She walks over to Alex and sits next to her on the bed. "It's okay," she says. "I'm thankful you could help me when I needed it. Besides, I knew you had a crush on him. And we both know Jacob has little care for any rules the humans set in this world. I'm just happy to have someone like him, someone to love, to laugh with, to be with. And I'm glad to have someone like you, Alexia."

A small tear drop comes from Alex. She wipes it away and says "It's Alex, and thank you."

Dylon leaves them to let the mood calm, if he was anything right now, he was happy.

Everyone soon came to be all together. The children running around, Dimitri looking at the baby girl, Alex named her Veronica. Jacob sits next to Sen and Alex, and Dylon has his arm around Deborah's waist. "You seem to be in in good mood," she says.

"Yeah," Dylon says as he walks towards Jacob. He outstretches his hand to him. "Welcome to the family."

Jacob ignores the formality and jumps up to give him a bear hug instead. Outside the room, Ruven leans against the wall. The door begins to open. He looks to see no one, but turns his attention down to see Maya. "Are you coming in?"

"No, it's a family thing."

"But you family, Uncle Ruv."

He looks down to find her hugging his leg. He looks back at the door to see Jacob, popping his head out. "She's right, you were the one who took care of me. If anything, you're my step-father."

Ruven skin crawls at that comparison. "I'd rather be an Uncle."

"Step-brother it is."

Ruven joins their fun, he even decides to take his mask off. At first, it seemed like a dumb move, have you seen his face? (comedic rimshot) However, they don't really mind. Dylon's home is where people can be who they are, instead of hiding it. Although, it would be better if Ruven didn't smile, he looks better frowning.


	21. The Grand Reunion (Pt 3)

Inside the medical room, Leon continues to rest. While his mind is still as sharp as ever, he has never been as vulnerable as now. From the curtain doors, a large man walks in, scanning the room and coming about the unconscious Leon. It's Ruven, after being with his friends and family, he decided to search the place for anything of interest. He stands there, staring down at the man, who has no means of escape. Ruven begins to search the room, soon coming upon a medical saw, a simple tool before technology. He analyzes it and slowing walks towards Leon.

Suddenly, someone enters the room.

Ruven drops the saw back where he grabbed it before the person could notice. He turns to see someone he hasn't met before, Helena. "W-who are you?" she asks.

"The names Ruven," he replies, "and you?"

"My names Helena Harper."

"Helena? Hmm… wait, you're Deborah's sister, right?"

"How do you know that?"

"I'm from Jacob's side of the family, we had a little get together to celebrate. Which begs the question, why didn't you show up?"

"I was recuperating after the false attack."

"I see."

Helena stands there for a moment, until she hears someone behind her. She turns to see Ustonia. "Excuse me," she says to her, "I need to get through, I have patient there."

At first, Helena thinks she means Ruven, but she looks behind him to Leon on the table.

"Leon?!"

She runs towards him and tries to get a response. Ustonia follows behind calmly. "He's unconscious, it's anyone's guess when he'll wake up."

She looks towards Ruven and walks behind him to grab her medical saw. Suddenly, Leon begins to stir. Ruven soon hurries to leave the room. "I have to go."

Before he could, Ustonia stops him for a moment. "Why were you in here?"

"I was looking for something, but I seems it's not here. Sorry for entering without permission."

With that, Ustonia lets him leave, just before Leon wakes up. At first, his vision is blurry, but he's soon able to see the person he's been looking for the whole time. "Helena?" he says while reaching out with his hand. "Yes Leon, it's me." she replies back.

He slowly sits up with a groan and shakes his head. He's soon filled with relief to see his friend was safe. "Helena, you… you…"

"What's wrong Leon?"

"... You owe me a vacation after this."

They both laugh for a moment before he realizes where he is. After a few minutes, he's able stand and, somewhat, move. Ustonia checks his joints, nerve reactions, and anything else. She's surprised to see him recover after an attack from those creatures. "Okay, you seem to have suffered no severe damage, and your friend is a few rooms down the hall to the left."

"Friend?... Chris?!"

Leon tries to hurry, but Helena stops him. "Easy, easy, there's no need to rush. The danger has past. Besides, you're not in the best condition right now."

"I've been worse on the field, but okay."

They follow Ustonia's directions and come upon an open door. They walk in to find Chris and Hunnigan, having waited patiently for his recovery. "Hunnigan." Leon says. As he comes to hug her, he stops awkwardly. "What's wrong?" she asks in confusion.

"Sorry… still getting use to the fact that you're here."

"I couldn't leave you with all the fun. Oh, that reminds me, what's the status back home."

"Ada Wong is in B.S.A.A. custody. Chris and I have been tracking a dangerous man through the forest here. He might still be out there, we need to find him, now."

"Any unique features?"

With that, Leon describes his appearance, including his name. When Helena hears his name, she freezes in shock. She soon leaves the room in a hurry to find Ruven. Leon stops and both he and Chris follow her. They walk for some time until they come upon two figures down the hall they were in. It's Ruven talking with Dylon. They only catch a bit of their conversation before they stop to see them running towards them. "I'm sorry, but they either leave or I take care of them," Ruven says.

"That's an irresponsible and ridiculous offer, why would I…," Dylon stops when Helena and the others come into view. At the sight of Ruven, Chris sprints passed Helena in anger. Before he manages to throw a punch, Dylon catches his fist in a flash. "Chris, it's nice to finally meet you, or are you Leon?"

He ignores what Dylon said and tries to reach or his weapons, only to see his armored vest is stripped of almost everything. Helena tries to stop him to explain. "Chris, what's wrong?"

He turns back at her, frustrated and angered. "This bastard killed all my men and nearly me and Leon."

"Well, those things in the forest did that of their own will." Ruven adds.

Chris immediately turns back to him and lands a punch right on his face. The blow knocks his mask clean off. Aside from flinching from the punch, Ruven shows no care.

Dylon stands in between the two and speaks to both of them. "Chris, calm down, there's no need to resort to violence," he pauses and turns to Ruven, "and you, treat him with some respect, otherwise I'll be the angry one."

Ruven nods and reaches for his mask on the floor. "Okay, will play it by your rules," he says while putting his mask back on. Chris comes towards Dylon with a demanding attitude. He says while pointing into his face "Listen here, I don't know what you are, but this freak of nature…"

He stops as Dylon grabs his hand and slowly begins to squeeze it. The growing pain causes Chris to drop to his knees. "This freak of nature is family, but I assure you, he won't go without a punishment. What he did was thoughtless and idiotic."

He releases his hand and walks down the hall with Ruven and the others following behind.

Dylon escorts everyone into the library, except for Ruven, along with Piers, who watches him. Dylon has a chair in front of his next to the fireplace. He gestures to Chris to sit down. Reluctantly, he does so while Leon, Hunnigan, and Helena stand to the side. "Listen," Dylon starts, "Ruven already told me about his time when he separated from Jacob."

"And?" Chris asks.

"I find his trip… unpleasant, however, he wasn't after you and the B.S.A.A. intentionally."

"I know, he was after Ada Wong and killed everything in his path like a psychopath."

"That's just it, the encounter with this Ada was accidental, he just so happened to take his chance for revenge. He showed me this."

Dylon pulls out a small piece of cloth. The cloth has a patch on it that only had the initials "E.S.F." and nothing to indicate what it stands for. He hands it to Chris, who examines it thoroughly. "What's this?" he asks.

"A patch Ruven snagged from a group of soldiers he was chasing to begin with. He said he found them hiding down in one of the abandoned buildings in the town in Europe you and your team were in. He killed them all and encountered Ada. You know the rest."

"But… I don't understand. Who's 'E.S.F'? I never seen a military force with this initial."

Hunnigan walks towards Chris asking "may I see that?"

He hands her the patch and she looks at it from each angle, but with no luck or clue. She turns to Dylon saying "please, you must have some technology here, any computers, just so I can analyze this."

Dylon ponders for a while before standing and turning to the bookshelf. He grabs one of the books and reaches behind the spot it was in. A click sounds off and part of the wall begins to move. Chris stands up and backs away as it reveals a destroyed entrance. Suddenly, the door opens and Piers's voice could be heard. "Uh… Dylon?"

They look to see Maya stomping over to Chris. She immediately starts punching and kicking him in the leg with the power of a kitten. "Big meany, you wanna hurt Uncle Ruv!"

"Sweety," Dylon says walking over and picking her up. "Now is not the time. I am trying to help our friends."

"That was cute, seeing her angry." Ruven says with a chuckle. He walks in with Piers behind him. Dylon takes Maya to Helena, who holds her in her hands. "Helena, watch over Maya while I help Hunnigan," he pauses and looks to Piers. "Piers, I might need your help too."

Dylon stands by the entrance as Hunnigan and Piers walk over. They look through it to see it's an elevator, the ground too far down to see. "You might want to hold on," Dylon says, instantly grabbing onto them and jumping down. Everyone runs towards the entrance and look down to see them disappear into darkness. A loud thud comes and Chris calls out. "Piers! Hunnigan! Are you alright?!"

A response comes back. "Yes! Shocked, but okay!"

The three find themselves in what remains of a destroyed lab. Hunnigan is shocked to see such technology, recognizing how advance it is, yet how destroyed it was too. "If we could find a power source, we could activate one of these terminals and you could use it." Dylon says, gesturing to Hunnigan.

Right after what he said, he and Hunnigan turn to Piers. He understands why Dylon wanted him to come down with them.

After a few minutes of searching, Hunnigan finds a relatively undamaged terminal. Dylon opens up the panels and find wires to connect to the electrically charged prongs on Piers's mutated arm. he gives some juice and the terminal instantly powers up. it even has what was on the screen before being shut down abruptly. Hunnigan gets to work. From the inside of her glasses, she pulls off what appears to be a small usb stick. Dylon is surprised she had it. In response, she says "I always come prepared."

She begins using the terminal to gain access to her computer files to scan the patch. The terminal has a useful scanner by the side of it. She loads the patch into the opening and it begins scanning. After about ten minutes, the scan is complete. Hunnigan is given file after file of encrypted information, however, they're child's play for her. Once they were decrypted, she goes to work, reading each one. Suddenly, she gasps in shock. "What's wrong?" Dylon asks.

"These files… they say the soldiers came from the company that owned this lab."

Dylon is just as shocked. He recalls Ruven saying the soldiers were following him and Jacob. He realizes it was the same people. He becomes angered by this, but soon calms down and decides to bring them back up.

Everyone, along with Scott, Hunter, and Ustonia, stand around Dylon and Hunnigan while she holds a hand-held computer. She points the screen to everyone and starts. "Okay, from what we could gather, and a few of us know, this place was created by Entity, a company similar to Umbrella. When I learned of this, I figured they were making the same mistakes. But, it's much worse. The encrypted files talk of one main goal, 'Extinction of the Human Race'"

Everyone was in shock, especially Chris and Leon.

Hunnigan continues. "It seems Verden, the head founder of this company, discovered what Umbrella was doing in Raccoon City. He revealed his knowledge of this and considered a proposition. In exchange for 'Unique Specimens', his company would have access to the T-virus and conduct studies of their own. Unknown to all who worked for him, verden somehow saw the 'Specimens' as something more. He went crazy and saw the specimens as new beings to inherit the earth. So he created this lab on this unknown island and, along with the other creatures being produced, sawed out to create the monstrosity under this mass of rock."

Dylon adds "the guardian of this place. They nicknamed it 'Apocalypse'."

Hunnigan continues. "However, one of the scientist saw the "Specimens" as the only ones needed to wipe out humans. In his delusional state, he destroyed this place, which was supporting Apocalypse, and actually put the creature in a state of Hibernation."

"However, it was still active, guarding this place, as its home, from any non viral or parasitic creatures, seeing them as his own kind." Dylon adds.

"So what does this mean?" Leon asks.

"Well… if it somehow awakens… it will carry out its purpose, global infection."

No one could process what she said. Entity created a doomsday creature, and they have been above it this whole time.

Hunnigan finishes. "So, we can't let this thing live. Dylon has allowed me to contact the B.S.A.A.. Unfortunately, any transmitter here is too damaged and weak to be of any use. Also, if either I, Chris, or any of use not infected try to leave, we'll be killed."

"So, for the time being, we'll discuss a plan for one of 'us' to go and try to warn them," Dylon adds, "any attempt to mask non viral beings, like Helena or Leon, or any of you, is too risky. Tomorrow morning, we'll decide."

With that, the whole room is silent. Now that they know what damage this creature could truly do, they must be wary.

Dylon remains in his library, reading one of his books. He hears the door open and sees Chris walk in. He stops reading and asks. "Yes Chris?"

"... Deborah told me some things about you," he pauses for a moment to gather his thoughts. "Listen, I do what I do to help the human race survive. And I want to say… I'm glad you put aside any issues you have with humans to help us."

Dylon give a quick sigh. "It's not that I hate humans. It's just that with the uncertainty of those you can't trust, as evident in your history, I couldn't take any chances. So what will become of me and my family?"

"After what you're doing and what Piers and his team do, I'll be glad to stand by you, along with the B.S.A.A., to come to an agreement. None of you will get hurt, I promise. But…"

"But what?"

"Ruven still needs to be dealt with."

"... Yes, his actions can't be left undealt with. Unfortunately, with the years of abuse he has endured, anything short of killing him might not be satisfactory."

They begin to search the mansion for Ruven, however, he's nowhere to be found. They walk outside, hoping to find him in front of the house. All that's seen are tracks leading to the shore, along with Jacob's ship being gone. As Dylon walks back in, Chris stand there for awhile, all before cursing under his breath. "... Damn it."


	22. The Fight Begins

For all this time, Dylon felt safe in his home, no worries of spies or anything like that. Unfortunately, his home isn't as unknown as he thought, and not just by its location. In an unknown facility, no knowledge of any location or coordinates, experiments have been taking place. Many scientists conduct bizarre tests, creating terrifying creatures, all for a single goal, the death of the human race. How Verden could convince them of this, it's damn impossible. One of them analyzes information at one of the many terminals. Suddenly, his screen flashes red, files appearing, each labeled "WARNING! BREACH IN SYSTEM." The scientist quickly traces the location of the breach. To his shock, it comes from the island.

In the upper levels of this facility, a man watches over all of them. A small room hangs over an immense area with scientists and experiments happening all at once. Suddenly, he receives a message on his laptop, centered on his desk. "Mr. Ruther, we have an emergency."

Ruther walks over to his laptop and activates the screen, showing the scientist calling for him. "What do you mean by 'emergency'?"

"W-we have a breach in the system originating from… sector 12. This could compromise our work."

Ruther steps away for a moment, becoming agitated, before returning to the screen. "... It's time."

"S-SIR, we need more time before the subjects are ready?!"

* * *

"They left us no choice, we'll have to retrieve the specimens from the sector now. Either be ready for departure, or you'll be a guinea pig for the next wave or tests."

"Y-yes… sir."

It has been a day since the meeting, everyone is preparing for the plan. However, Dylon isn't entirely focused, due to the recent situation. He and Jacob begin searching for any signs of Ruven, hoping this was just a joke, it wasn't. Their best guess is that he left the island for god knows where. They regroup back at the shore. "Jacob," Dylon says, agitated and displeased. "How could you let Ruven escape?"

"ME?! I wasn't the one who was with him, no one was."

"He's your friend, you must know where he went."

"I don't know. He could be going to kill that Ada person, or just back home. He left me with nothing to go on."

"Is there any chance of him coming back?"

"Of course he will, he wouldn't trust these people around us. Besides, what were you going to do with him, you're not the punisher-type."

"I was hoping you could do something, so…"

Dylon stops, no attempt to continue speaking. Jacob becomes confused and tries to snap him out of it. "Hey, hey bro, what's wrong? You look like…"

Soon, he stops too. Neither say a word. They turn to the ocean in shock. Dylon finally says something. "Do you feel that?"

"Y-yes, but… what is it?"

"I don't know, but it's something bad."

Suddenly, they see something large coming to shore. A war ship of some sort, but it has no visible weapons, or anything on deck as far as they could see. It continues on its normal speed, showing no attempt of slowing down. Suddenly, several large shells shoot out from it, each of immense size. Dylon and Jacob see them coming for them. They run as fast as they can, the large shells impact send debris everywhere. They finally stop. They turn back around to see six of them in total. Jacob decides to take a closer look. As he does, one of them begins to open. He backs away in a rush. One side of the shell opens up, releasing smoke. Before it clears, an enormous humanoid creature steps out.

Its face looks almost human, lacking pupils with dark grey skin. It wears some sort of armored clothing, small chunks of metal, like locks, are all over it. With each step it takes, the ground shakes. Soon, each shell opens up, revealing the same kind of creatures. Dylon is frozen in fear at the sight of them. One of them looks down on him and begins to wind up for a punch. As it did, Jacob pushes Dylon out of the way before it hits him. Without warning, they run as fast as they can for the mansion. The large creatures, tyrants, follow.

Deborah stands on the outside of the front door, awaiting Dylon and jacob's return. But, as she sees them running, she can hear them screaming. "RUN, GET BACK IN THE HOUSE NOW!"

She sees what is chasing them and does so. As the tyrants follows them, their combined movement causes small quakes, which everyone feels. For anyone near the front of the mansion, they stare in horror. Piers sees what is coming and begins calling for his men to advance. Chris runs by him and stops him. "Piers, what's wrong?!"

"Tyrants, a lot of them. We have to fight."

"What?! Where did they…," he stops as the sound of walls being destroyed follow. In a flash, they start advancing. One of the tyrants smashes through the left side wall of the door, bringing down a small portion of the mansion. Jacob stands at the foot of the stairs in the back of the room. He sees Deborah, trapped under some rubble. The tyrant does not notice her, but was about to step on her. She screams, only to find Dylon, enraged, knocking the creature back with all his strength. As it tumbles back, it knocks down another two tyrants, the others searching for other passages.

As the tyrant regains its footing, it's met with Dylon, grabbing on to his face as he proceeds to attack him. He was like an enraged animal, doing everything he could to kill the creature. Suddenly, he digs his claws into the neck of the tyrant. It roars in pain, only to be silenced as Dylon proceeds to rip its head off. Its body slumps to the ground, leaving Dylon with its head. He runs to Deborah and tosses the debris to the side. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

He was thankful she was safe, but this wasn't the time to relax. He looks to the side to see the other two, after regaining their balance, come closer. "Deborah, go get the kids, me and Jacob will hold them off."

"Okay, but Dylon," she replies, pausing to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Be safe."

"Right."

Jacob looks up to the left side of the upper level of the room to see Lotus and Gregore coming through. "Master," Lotus yells, "what's happening?!"

"I'll explain later, go help your queen and Lady Alex. Gregore, stay here, I need your help."

They do as they are told. Lotus leaves to ensure Sen's safety while Gregore primes his clawed gauntlets. Dylon backs away from the creatures to where Jacob is. "Jacob, we need to lure them away from here or they'll kill everyone."

"Right… any plans besides going ape-shit on them?"

"No."

"... Okay. Gregore."

In an instant, Gregore charges for them, claws prepared to swing. The two stand their ground for the attack. Suddenly, Gregore runs passed them. They turn to look, only to turn back to a surprise attack. Jacob clings to the tyrant's back. It struggles to remove him while the other squares off with Dylon.

In his mind, Dylon struggles to decide on a risky choice, but with enemies like this, he didn't have one. His body begins to ark, jolting into multiple directions. His back begins to move and wriggle, like something was trying to break free. Without warning, enormous hands sprout from his back, each tipped with gigantic claws. His lips start to recede to reveal enormous teeth, each as thick as railroad spikes and as sharp as blades. He lets out a blood curdling scream before charging at the tyrant. In response, it begins to charge towards him, ready to fight. Dylon jumps mid-air, high enough to meet the tyrant's face, and strikes it in the chest with his large hands. The force tossing the creature far from the mansion.

Around the sides, the others prepare to tear the place down, one on its own, the other two together. The single tyrant is by the outskirts of the forest, staying back to charge and bash down the wall. Before it does, it's shot at in the back. Unfortunately, that did nothing. These creatures were made to be literal one-man armies. It turns to see Chris. "HEY, UGLY, COME AND GET ME!" he yells, firing at it again. The tyrant becomes agitated and decides to go after him. Chris runs as fast as he can into the forest, dodging trees and jumping over obstacles. The tyrant, however, simply knocks the trees out of the way and crushes anything under its feet. Chris begins to analyze his surroundings, as if looking for something. Suddenly, the creature swings its hand out to try and grab him, but Chris manages to stay one step ahead of the hulking creature.

Although his small size was an advantage, he knows he couldn't keep this up for long. He finally stops, looking towards a familiar tree. He snickers before turning to face the tyrant, standing in the distance. It stops to try and find him again, only the hear him yell "OVER HERE!"

It starts running again, Chris stands his ground, muttering "let this work."

At the last second, he jumps out of the way, the tyrant having fallen down an unseen drop off. It begins to tumble down the hill, the ground shaking like crazy, all up to when it collides with the ground floor.

It manages to regain its footing and begins walking back up to get him. As it looks up at him, Chris points up into the trees. The tyrant looks to see a horde of predators looking down on it, angered that it invaded their nest. They begin to attack, clawing at its armor and head. The tyrant becomes overwhelmed. Chris stands their for a moment before rushing back to help the others.

Back at the mansion, Piers, Scott, and Hunter struggle to bring their tyrants down. Scott and Hunter take one of them, trying to hit its head. But it manages to block the bullets with its hands before coming down to try and crush them. Piers has the same amount of trouble with his. Suddenly, the tyrant manages to grab him by the the… everything, these guys are freakin huge. It has him in his hand before tossing him to the ground with great force. It then proceeds to kick him in the side, launching him far away. Scott tries to help, but he and Hunter are too distracted with their tyrant. Piers's tyrant walks over to him as he tries to stand. He can feel his broken bones trying to heal, the process was painful. It looks down on him with the intent to kill.

Piers braces himself, but before the tyrant could crush him, he is saved by Lisa. She springs out of nowhere and leaps onto the tyrant's head. Piers doesn't want her to fight, but she gives him the best opportunity to strike. Ignoring the pain, his arm begins to mutate and charge. The tyrant grabs Lisa by the waist and begins to crush her. As she screamed in pain, Piers lets out all he could and blasts the tyrant in the head. Its head explodes, allowing Lisa to free herself as its body falls to the ground.

Piers lays on the ground in relief. Lisa comes to his side in relief as well. She helps him up and back inside to tend to his wounds.

Scott distracts the tyrant, now focused on him entirely. Hunter takes the chance to hide within the trees to get a shot in without the tyrant blocking it. Scott backs away as he emptied his clip on the tyrant, to no success. It grabs him by the legs, tossing him in the air before grabbing him again by the upper torso. It pulls its fist back, preparing to smash his head in. Unknown to it, a strange silhouette moves about, with no body, onto its shoulder. The gun appears and the silhouette shoots the tyrant right on the side of his face. It jerks away, dropping Scott, and the silhouette moves back.

It reveals itself to be Hunter, using a camouflage ability to make himself invisible. The tyrant regains its focus, only to be met with a shot from Scott, this time with a grenade from his launcher attachment on his gun. The grenade hits dead center on its forehead and explodes. The tyrant falls before the smoke even clears.

Dylon, Jacob, and Gregore continue to hold off their tyrants. Dylon strikes with great force, knocking the tyrant back and forth with no effort, except for landing the killing blow. Jacob latches onto the back of his tyrant and begins to use his claws to dig through the armor and clothing. As the tyrant struggles to remove him, Gregore runs back and forth around it, slashing at it with each pass. Jacob soon gives up his plan of attack and heads straight for the head. He reveals his large teeth and locks them on its neck. The tyrant thrashes about, only making the bite worse. Jacob then pulls with all his strength and tears the head off.

Five down, one to go, Jacob runs to aid Dylon, but stops to see something strange happening. Dylon stops fighting the tyrant as it begins to change. Its armor and clothing begin to rip apart as its body grows, becoming larger, more muscular, and developing giant claws on its fingers. It turns into its super tyrant form, removing its limiter, which controls any mutations.

Scott and Hunter regroup with Piers, aided by Lisa. Suddenly, Chris runs out from the forest and regroups with them as well. "Is yours toast?" asks Hunter.

"Yeah," Chris responds, "come on, we have to stop any others and…"

He stops as the ground shakes. He turns to see the Tyrant he left behind, mutated and holding a dead predator in its hand. It tosses it to the side and charges as the group. Lisa and Piers jump out of the way, they turn to see it following the others as they run back to the front of the mansion. They find Dylon taking another super tyrant head on. They see Jacob to the side, gesturing to them to lead it into the forest. They do so and it follows. Dylon's tyrant notices them and decides to follow too, along with himself, Jacob, and Gregore. They all take the fighting into the forest interior, however, unknown to them, the ship holds more unwelcome guests.

From the ship, now set as close as it can to the island without landing on shore, small crafts are released from the sides, having a strange field around them. They land on shore as far from the water as possible. They open up to reveal the same soldiers that were tracking Ruven in Europe. "Alright men," the apparent captain of them says, "Proceed with caution, no use of live ammunition, only if necessary. Capture any specimen and set off the device."

From the back of the group, two of the soldiers carry out a small device, about the size of a watermelon, with a single activation switch. The captain sets his sight on the mansion and heads straight for it, along with his men.

Lisa heads for the entrance to find no signs of the others. Suddenly, she notices the soldiers coming from the beach. She rushes inside to bring Piers to safety. They hide out in the medical room as the soldiers enter the mansion. Of them, they split up into four groups of five, except for the captain and the two with the device. Each group takes a different part of the mansion as the captain and the two head for a specific location. Lisa turns to Piers for a moment. "Lisa, it's too dangerous. Find anyone you can and leave."

She sets him on the table and hushes him. "Stay… quiet."

In his condition, he does so, hoping Lisa would do what he said. Unfortunately, she decides to follow them instead.


	23. It awakens

One group of soldiers heads down into the Northern area of the mansion, the others do the same from East, West, and South. North group find their area to be darkened, all the lights have been turned off. They move cautiously, checking each room thoroughly. They come upon an opened door, a bit of light is emitted from the crack. One of the soldiers enters with caution, only to see Sen, standing in the center of the room. The others surround her and train their guns on her. She speaks softly to them. "Please, I don't want to hurt you, just leave."

They give no response, she sighs with grief. One of them comes close to her to capture her. Without warning, blood spatters all around. The others look away for a moment, just to look back and see gigantic spikes, jutting out from Sen. Her spikes impale the soldier, retracting and letting the body fall to the ground. Her eyes turn a darker red than before. One of them tries to leave the room, only to have the door shut, locking them in. Lotus stands on the other side blocking it. Screams and cries come from the soldiers, followed by crashing sounds and inhuman screeches. Lotus opens the door to find one come out, bloodied and terrified. She runs to him and grabs him by the head. Her lower jaw splits open and she vomits up acidic fluids that begins to dissolve his skin as he screams.

The East group comes to the end of their hall, splitting off in two directions. Leon hides around the corner on the left side. As he tries to head down to the right. The leading soldier fires. Leon steps back in an instant. "The captain said not to fire," one of them says to the leading soldier. He responds "he's not a specimen, we can't let him go. Just shoot."

They do so, aiming down the hall to hit him. Leon reaches for his gun. However, as he tries to use it, it jams. The encounter with the predators must have damaged it. "Damn it," he mutters under his breath.

The gunfire stops and he takes his chance, rushing down the hall. The soldiers follow, trying to catch up. Leon runs as fast as he can, hearing gunfire behind him, and soon feels a sharp pain in his left arm. One of the shots graze it, the small wound begins to bleed, but he keeps running.

He sees someone far down the hall, Ustonia, gesturing for him to hide in the room she's in. He does so as the soldiers continue to fire. They reach the room and, without a second thought, kick down the door. "Freeze!" one of them yells out. They only find Ustonia, standing in the middle of the room, defenseless. She puts her hands behind her back. One of the soldiers pulls out a small scanner a waves it in front of her. It begins to light up with flashing lights. "She's a specimen, capture her."

As they move closer, one of them reaches out to grab her, only to be met with a saw. She swipes it passed his hand, slicing off the fingers. The soldier backs away in pain while the others open fire. She dodges each one cleanly with great bursts of speed. At the same time, slashing at them, leaving gashes on either the armor or body. She ends up behind them all. As she places her saw back into a sheath she had it in, their bodies drop. Leon appears from a nearby closet. "Jesus… exactly what were you?"

She turns back to him. "I was, and still am, Ustonia, with a little Ubistvo."

As the West group search their hallway, Deborah hides within one of the rooms, along with her children. "Mama," Maya asks, frightened. "Are they going to hurt us?"

"No sweetie, I won't let them. Stay with your brothers and keep them safe…"

The soldiers finally reach their room and kick down the door. "...Oh, and look away."

As she says that, her clawed tentacles appear. She jumps out from the corner and strikes at the soldiers, backing away in shock. Her attack takes a chunk of the wall and two of the soldiers down. The others do a "tactical retreat." She follows them, making sure to put enough distance between them and her children.

The South group becomes lost in the maze of halls and doors of the mansion. Unknown to them, Helena hides behind one the corners of the connecting hall. She loads her Hydra shotgun and fires three shots. One misses, the other two take down a soldier. Right after, she runs, chased by the remaining four. As she does her best to avoid their bullets, she notices her sister, chasing down another group. They notice each other and react instantly, Helena sees an open door and quickly runs into the room, the soldiers chasing her collide with the others, and Deborah takes her shot. She lashes out, knocking down the walls and taking them all out. After the dust clears, she heads into the room with her sister. "Perfect timing," Helena says.

"Come on," Deborah replies, "we need to get everyone out of here."

* * *

Back outside, Dylon and the others do their best to take down the tyrants, but they prove to be too strong to defeat. Their attacks are devastating and they continue to regenerate after each attack. Chris and Scott hide behind one the the toppled trees. Their fight with the tyrants create an open field of trees littered all around. Jacob lashes out at one of them, only to be knocked away by its giant claws. Gregore does the same, but then, he becomes impaled by one of them and is soon thrown to the side. Jacob rushes to his side as Dylon, with all his strength, continues to hold the tyrants at bay. Not only is he fighting them, but also maintains control. He has never needed to use his mutagenic power, or would ever want to. The tyrants back away for a moment before attacking all at once. They strike at Dylon with both hands, swatting him away and into the trees, knocking a number of them down.

Jacob rejoins the fight and stands in between the two giants. He rolls into a ball, his back out, covered in his quills. Suddenly, they shoot out in all directions. One of the tyrants covers his face, the other wasn't fast enough and is hit in the eyes. It stumbles back in pain. Out of nowhere, Dylon jumps out from the trees and tackles down the distracted Tyrant. He attacks the head repeatedly, again and again, until it's no more, now just a red pulp.

The remaining tyrant picks up one of the trees and tosses it at Dylon. Dylon turns on a dime and uses his giant hands to swipe away the tree. He jumps to the tyrant and tackles it down as well. However, it hits him in the stomach. The giant claws go straight through him. He roars in pain and soon, being close enough, he sinks his teeth into the tyrant's face. He rips it in half, at the same time, pulling the claw out.

He lands on the ground, instantly healing from the impact. Jacob rushes to his side. "Dylon, are you okay?"

He gives no response. Dylon slowly crawls towards him on all fours, acting like an animal. Suddenly, he stops and starts to fight for control. The clawed hands begin to retract back into his body. He soon returns back to normal, breathing heavily. "S-sorry, I'm not use to that," he says. "We need to make sure there aren't anymore."

They run back to the mansion, oblivious to what was happening.

* * *

The captain and the two arrive to Dylon's library. They begin to search for the entrance to the underground lab. Inside the lab, Hunnigan hides out, decoding files and anything of use. She hears the doors above open. At first, she thought it was Dylon, until she sees the rope drop, along with the captain. "Freeze, step away from the terminal!"

Hunnigan backs away, her hands raised behind her head. The two drop down with the device. They bring it to the terminal and begin to sync them. "What are you doing?" Hunnigan asks.

"None of your business," the captain replies.

"I don't understand. Why are you people doing this if you know your employers are going to kill you in the end."

"They'll rule this dystopian world, bring it to a state of peace. Entity will be seen as heroes. And with those specimens taking control, it will be made easier."

"You fools, they're crazy enough to kill themselves, leaving only Dylon and other mutants, who don't even seek to have control of the world."

"You'll see," the captain turns to the two, "activate the device."

The soldiers activate it. It begins downloading activation codes into the terminal. Suddenly, parts of the lab begin to move. Walls disappear, machinery activates, and the floor begins to open. At first, it seemed to be just blackness. Until a large electrified piece of machinery enters an opening in the floor. The static runs through what lies below. Like the sun itself, The creature begins to rise, its eye opens, showing unbelievable size on its own. The entire floor is replaced by a single eye, only a glass floor was between them and it. Apocalypse awakens, the terror has begun.


	24. Escape

As it begins to move, Hunnigan stands frozen at its great size. The captain catches her as she stares down, taking her back to the surface. With each passing second, the quakes caused by this behemoth grow larger and larger. After the captain starts heading back up, the creature brakes through the floor and grabs the remaining soldiers. Their pleads for help become quieter as the captain climbs up more. He reaches the top and tosses Hunnigan to the floor. "You're coming with me back to HQ. You might be of some use."

Before Hunnigan could reply, the captain suddenly goes numb, his arms fall to his sides and drop his gun. He looks to his chest to see blood seep through his clothing, the stain growing larger and larger. He slowly turns to see Gregore, having impaled him, proceed to decapitate him. Deborah and Dylon stand behind him. Deborah goes to Hunnigan and helps her up, while around them, the quakes continue to grow exponentially.

"We have to go!" Dylon yells.

Everyone within the mansion runs out as fast as they can. Sen, along with Deborah's children, having already escaped, made it to safety near the forest boundary. As Dylon comes to the entrance, he sees Lisa, struggling to hold Piers by the shoulder while the quakes grow. He runs to her and helps them escape as the roof begins to collapse. Everyone is huddled around each other, sitting out the quakes, which seem endless. Suddenly, they notice the water by the shore begin to recede at an alarming rate. Far off in the distance, Apocalypse begins to rise. It's a mile off shore, yet its great size made it appear as a giant to them still. Its body is a mix of reds, browns, and pitch black flesh. It has no shape to its mass, except for a single eye, it alone was far larger than anything they have encountered.

It soon changes, morphing into a new shape. Limbs begin to form, armor-like growths and weapons sprout from all around it. The mass of flesh takes the shape of a leviathan-like creature. Before leaving the island, it turns to them, and gives a roar that could break the sound barrier. It takes to the deep, swimming to the nearest landmass. Already, the bodies of fish and other creatures begin to appear behind it, corpses left by its movement alone.

No one could move, the sheer size of the creature made it seem impossible to kill. Dylon then notices the returning water, crashing into the shore, flinging the cruiser the soldiers used into the air. Everyone stands still, not wanting to move in fear of walking into their spot of impact. One comes right to them. In an instant, Dylon releases his clawed hands and swipes the debris away. The chaos subsides, the silence returns, all hope, destroyed.

* * *

It has been hours now, yet most of them still remain in the same spot, staring out to the sea, where Apocalypse arose from. Chris sits by the shore, he isn't angry, he isn't frustrated, no emotion could express how he feels now. The only one that's close is… hopeless. Leon comes over next to him, more focused on leaving then sulking. "Chris…," he pauses for a moment as Chris turns to him, "look, I know what you're going through, feeling like there's no way to do this on your own. But remember, we're all here beside you. We've survived countless challenges, we'll survive this one."

Chris gives off a sigh. "It seems impossible. It's… enormous. Nothing like it has ever been made, or seen. You could hit that thing with all the missiles in the world and it would still stay standing."

"Something like this always has a weakness, we'll find it. Besides, we have to at least try."

Chris turns to Leon, more invigorated than before. "Yeah, you're right." he stands back up. "Now, we just need a way off this island."

"Let's see if we could scavenge anything from what remains of the cruisers."

They head down a distance part of the beach, having seen most of the cruisers landing far from their location. They come upon nothing but unusable piles of metal. "Damn it," Chris says, "nothing is intact, there must be something we could do."

Suddenly, Leon notices something in the distance. At first, he thought it was the main ship the cruisers came from. This couldn't be, it was destroyed as well.

Chris looks out to where Leon sees the ship, it wasn't clear, but it was just enough for one fact. "That's not their ship, it's something else.".

This ship is far larger, more heavily armored. Huge turrets, seen from a great distance, litter the top of the ship. From rocket launchers to miniguns, this ship appeared to have been made into a one fleet army. As it comes closer and closer, Chris and Leon rush back to the others.

Jacob looks to Dylon as he stands by what was left of his home. "Don't worry," Jacob says, "you can rebuild it. Hell, you could stay at my place until it's done."

Dylon gives a quick chuckle. "It's funny, we just saw the end of the world, and you talk about my house."

"YEAH, that is,… was, your home."

Suddenly, they turn to the shore at the sound of Chris and Leon's shouting. Dylon's focus is on them, but Jacob stares straight out to the ship in the distance. Soon, a small grin begins to form on his face. Dylon turns to him when he noticed. "What's wrong?" he asks.

Jacob gives no direct response and starts running to the shore. "That son of a bitch."

Dylon follows him, trying to get his attention. "Jacob, what's wrong? Do you know where that ship came from?"

As they finally reach to shore, Jacob replies. "Yeah, and as for who's on it, let's just say he's very lucky we needed this."

The large ship finally reaches the shore, almost to the point of beaching itself. Small lifeboats on the sides are released, carrying what appears to be armed men. Dylon goes into a battle stance, but Jacob stops him. "WHOA WAIT! Don't fight. Just… wait."

Dylon is unsure, but trusts his brother. Everyone comes down to the shore to see them. Most of them didn't know who they are, except for Jacob, Sen, and their group. However, to Leon, as they got closer, they brought back memories in his head. "Oh my god," he says, "they're… ganados!"

"What," Chris replies, "how do you know?"

"When I was on my mission to save Ashley, I ran into these guys on the island where Saddler did his experiments."

"Saddler? Wait, you said he was dead."

"He is, so who brought them?"

Suddenly, they see someone familiar in one of the lifeboats, Ruven. Without waiting to hit the shore, he jumps off into the water and moves as fast as he can. "I brought some back up and saw a whale of a thing out there?!" he says with shocked attention.

"Ruven," Jacob says as he stomps over to him. "I outta mount your head above my tail for leaving us here. I would do that, if I wasn't so happy to see you." The frown turns to a jokester smile as he punches him in the arm. Ruven returns the happy punch. "To be honest, I didn't do this on my own account."

"Then… who told you?"

Jacob turns to Sen, who shakes her head in response. Alex, while sitting down with Veronica in her lap, replies "I told him. We should at least be prepared to leave when we wanted to. Although, I didn't tell him to bring the Crusher."

"I thought it would be more fun," he says, "however, looks like it was a smart move too." he says when he sees the damage caused to the place. "What did I miss?"

"We'll talk later," Dylon replies, "right now, we need to take down that thing before it makes it to the mainlands."

"Wait!" Leon says, turning to Dylon. "You think it's a good idea for us to be on that ship. I've seen what these guys are capable of."

"Don't worry," Sen says, getting their attention. "They'll listen to me. They never go back on an order. You'll be safe."

Suddenly, Dylon realizes something. "Wait, we still can't go."

"Dylon," Jacob says, "don't worry, the Ganados won't do any…"

Dylon stops him. "That's not it. This is the only ship here. We can't go fight with the children in danger, or Deborah or Sen. They're not fighters."

Jacob understands instantly. Even with a ship like the Crusher, there's nothing stopping Apocalypse from destroying it. "Well, can't they stay here."

"No, it's too risky. Entity might still be watching."

Sen begins to feel saddened, thinking they were holding them back. Jacob takes notice. "Sen, it's not your fault," she looks him in the eyes, feeling comfort from what he said.

"Let's see," Ruven starts, "we can't take them with us to fight, but we can't leave them here. It'll take too long to bring them back to our home, unless you don't mind losing a full day in the process." He looks to everyone before continuing. "We could take the life boats the rest of the way when we get close enough. But, depending on what the conditions are in the mainland, a safe distance might be subjective. Plus, having the Crusher's firepower would be handy… I got nothing."

"... Well… we'll have to take that risk, it's our best option," Dylon replies. After a short while, everyone was in agreement.

As everyone arrives to the Crusher by lifeboat, Chris asks Piers something. "You said you had a larger team with you. Where are the others?"

"Before this, I sent two of my men on a retrieval mission for a certain someone. At this moment, she might even be helpful. As for the others, they're on different missions, far out of my communication. Unfortunately, it was just me, Scott, Hunter, and Ustonia when the attack happened. Wish I saw this coming"

Piers pulls out a small radio-like device. "This may look small, but its radius is unnatural, using the labs technology. I've alerted those out on the retrieval mission what is happening. Hopefully, they heard me."

"I thought you said it has great range?"

"At the moment, Apocalypse might be affecting it, we'll see."


	25. The Assignment

As time passed, it becomes clear to the B.S.A.A. the approach of Apocalypse. Satellite scanners go nuts at the site of the trail of death it leaves. Soldiers from around the world, from different branches, congregating to its estimated destination. In the hospital,where Leon and Ada were cared for, she still remains, awaiting full health, along with being bored as hell. Everyone was leaving, except for those who are guarding her. From around the corner, a man appears, his attire that of a high ranking captain. Most of his face was obscured from his gear, almost masked completely. He walks to the soldiers, appearing urgent. "I need you two to head off as well."

The two look at each other in confusion. "With all do respect, sir," on of them replies, "we have orders from our commander to remain here and guard Ada Wong."

"Change of plans, we're having her transport. The site of what's coming will make this a hot zone. I, along with a small group of doctors, will he taking her somewhere else."

"But… are orders are to…"

"Do you two want to be court martialed for disobeying direct orders from a superior officer?."

The two look at each other before answering. "No, sir."

They run out of the building, leaving the man with Ada. He checks around the halls, making sure no one else was around. He then removes his attire, which was concealing his real equipment. He wore a black armored vest, unusual devices on his wrists, and, after removing the mask, pulls out a type of gas mask to cover his face completely. It had a short muzzle and far more high tech than primitive types. "Much better," he lets out.

He enters the room, catching Ada off guard. "Who are you?"

"That depends," he says, "do you want to stay here?"

"Hmm… are you with that psycho?" she sounds sarcastic.

"You mean that Ruven guy? Crazy looking, really."

"Wait, you are with him?"

She suddenly jumps out from the bed. From under the sheets, she reveals her crossbow, awaiting a chance to escape. "Relax, after what he did, we won't let him go near you."

"Wait, 'we'?"

She turns on the dime, noticing another man, having somehow avoided her detection. He raises his wrist to her face, having a strange gas spray out. In an instant, she collapses, the man catches her. He wears a similar attire to the other man, except for strange items around him like decorations. Some spikes, other's teeth, and having a ski mask with white markings over it, showing only his eyes. "Perfect timing. Let's get her out of here."

The second man waits, looking at him questionably. Without needing to hear him, his friend knows what he's thinking. "Why should I carry her?"

He says nothing, yet he could tell just from the eyes. "Fine, but next time it's another rescue, you're carrying the person."

He hands her to him and the two run for the nearest exit.

On the outside, every citizen is being escorted out of the city by armored vehicles and soldiers. "Remain calm," a soldier says from a megaphone, looking over from the top of one of the vehicles. "Your safety is assured. Evacuate the city in a orderly fashion, and no one will be harmed."

Each person shows a different emotion, fear, annoyance, curiosity, concern, everything. No one really knows what was happen, but that would all change in an instant.

The two, along with Ada, still unconscious, make it out of the building. "Alright, we just need to make it to the boat and avoid whatever the hell is out there."

The other man looks at him curiously.

"I don't know what it is. But from Piers's message, it's not good."

Suddenly, the earthquakes come. The sound of vehicles and the people stop instantly. Only a few murmurs and questions.

"What was that?" "Is there an earthquake?" "What's happening?"

They come again, louder, more destructive. As if a giant was on the move, the quakes come like footsteps, growing louder and louder. The water by the shore blackens, the bodies of dead fish and other animals wash up onto shore. It arises from the water with a loud roar. Even though the people are far from the shore, and vision obscured by the buildings, they could still see it, appearing as an otherworldly monster. is changes form again, gaining what appears to be large limbs. Its head becoming shortened and muzzle-like. Its upper torso appearing larger than its lower as it edges closer and closer to land.

As this happens, chaos runs rampant through the streets. Calm and order go out the window, it was everybody for themselves. Most of the soldiers divide, some run to the creature to stop it. Some retreat, awaiting reinforcements. And as for the overseer, he remains, attempting to calm the people, with no success. To Apocalypse, the soldiers and people looked like ants, a simple bother, but of use. It begins to inhale with great force, actually causing a small vacuum as sand and air is drawn in. It was of no great concern to the soldiers, Apocalypse has its head raised to the sky, avoiding drawing them in. Then, with unbelievable quantity, strange gas begins to gather in its mouth as it stops.

From the center of the city, the remaining soldier sees what is happening and instantly attaches his gas mask and enters the vehicle. With no driver, having retreated, the man enters the driver seat and starts the engine. The people see the same thing and begin crowding the vehicle. Everyone enters the surrounding vehicles, people shoving and pushing to either get in or others out. As for those in with the soldier, they scream "START THE CAR!"

Then, it comes. Apocalypse exhales. The dark cloud rushes like a dust storm, covering everything in its path. The people shut the doors of the vehicles, leaving those outside to their fate. The cloud catches the soldiers in an instant. Right before it comes to the vehicles, the ones outside try to smash in the windows, to no success. The cloud comes in a flash, the gusting noise is so strong, it overlaps the screams of terror, and hides everything from site. Before the clouds come, the two men with Ada manage to hide out in one of the abandoned buildings. "Well, this is bad."

Everything is dark. The cloud blocks out any outside lights. The people use their phones and try to look out into the cloud, hoping to see survivors. No one could see more than a few feet, those outside having vanished. Suddenly, one of the men shouts. "Right there! What's that?!" The others look to see what the man is pointing to. Movement is seen in the cloud, only silhouettes, then comes the crashes. They could here windows from other vehicles shatter, followed by the screams of the people, mixed in with inhuman cries and hisses.

It all stops in an instant. No screams, no hisses, no roars, nothing. Suddenly, a bloody hand hits the window, desperate to get in. The man appears into view. "PLEASE, LET ME IN!?"

Everyone is too scared to do so, trying to back away from that side of the car. The man turns and is suddenly taken down by something. The screams and hisses return, followed by the man's screaming. Like before, it stops.

After some time, the cloud finally dissipates, revealing a bloody scene. Bodies torn to pieces, organs littered the ground, blood painted over everything. Some scream, others watch in silence. Finally, one of them has the guts to leave the vehicle, a woman. As she steps onto the ground, she trips. After the fall, she looks to see a hand under her foot. She kicks it away screaming, but then stops. She starts to hear deep hisses, like a gator. Drool falls to her shoulder. She slowly looks up at the top of the vehicle to see one of the creatures, waiting for an opportunity. Its skin was grey, brown, and rotting, what was left of the head was just a mouth with jagged teeth, no eyes, no nose, just teeth. Different parts of the creature were mutated. A hand replaced by hooked tendrils, feet turned to grasshopper-like limbs, the torso elongated and rigid, nothing human remained. It gives a demonic scream luering the others, then… chaos again.

People are running out of the vehicles, either by choice or the site of "them" breaking in. Far in the distance, reinforcements finally arrive, horrified by the site. The woman sees them and runs to them as if her life depended on it, which it does. They come to her, but right when she makes it, a large claw bursts out of the ground, grabbing her by the chest and pulling her down. They grab her by the legs, trying to save her. They manage to pull her out, well… some of her, only the lower torso.

From the top of the roof of a building, the two men are shocked at the site of the carnage. Ada begins to stir, awakening. She looks to her side and sees her weapons laid out. Before she could reach for them, the man stops her. "Not a good idea. Look."

She comes over and sees the destruction. It begins to spread all over the city, soldiers fighting off the creatures, civilians in need of help, and Apocalypse in the distance, morphing again, slower this time. Its skin appears to be hardening, giving it support as it tries to walk on land. It lays on the shore, half submerged and half stranded, taking its time, waiting. "Yeah," the man says. "So unless you're good enough to make it passed all of that, I suggest we sit together."

She looks to him, seeing no other option. "Before I agree, what's your names?"

"I can't say, but you can call me Agent, and this is Ryan, the silent type."

He give a quick raise of the hand to signal "hi" before dropping it.

"Alright," Ada says, "what's the plan?"

"As far as I know, we hold out until backup comes…," he pauses and looks at the door, barricaded as the creatures try to break it down. "...so we're stuck."

"Hm, you are, but I'm not."

In a flash, Ada shoots her grapple hook out to another roof and heads off. "Damn, she's good," Agent says, "but not good enough."

As Ada lands, she looks to her crossbow, but finds she's out of ammo. She looks back to see Ryan, holding her ammunition and cubic cell. "Hm, clever," she says to herself.

She returns to them, having been given back her ammo. However, as she reaches for her cell, Ryan crushes it. "Sorry," Agent says, "but we should stick together. If we die, you die as well."

"I feel like I'm still in custody."

"Only this time by people who can hold you in custody."

Suddenly, one of the creatures manages to break through a window on the floor below and climb up to the top. It jumps out at Ada and Agent. She jumps out of the way, but Agent remains still. As the creature comes closer, he grabs it by the head and uses its momentum to toss it over the side. It falls back to the ground, dying from the crash. The three make their stand as more make it up through the windows. What's worse, the others break down the door and attack.

"Kind of wish Leon was here."


	26. Last Stand

During the star lit night, the Crusher goes at full speed towards the mainland. Everyone prepares for their arrival, with Dylon going over the plan. He and those who want to fight stand around a table with a light hovering over it. "Okay," Dylon starts, making scratch marks onto the table. "This is the mainland, we're here, and Apocalypse is somewhere here. If he's still in the water, we'll need to be as far from him as possible before we leave in the lifeboats. If he's somehow on land, we'll get closer. Group one, Leon, Chris, Helena, Piers, and Ustonia, you'll be heading into the interior of the city to try and help any civilians. Group two, Scott and Hunter, you two will locate Agent and Ryan, along with Ada. Group three, Ruven and the Ganados will be helping out any B.S.A.A. soldiers. As for me and Jacob, we'll try and find a weakness on Apocalypse."

Everyone give a nod of agreement. "You scratched up my table," Jacob points out.

"Hm, you pick your moments," Dylon Replies.

"Indeed I do."

The teams split up between ten lifeboats, Group 1 with one, group 2 with another, and group 3, along with Jacob and Dylon, with the rest. They await their arrival, which comes sooner than expected. They are shocked at what became of their destination. Smoke clouds, radiating from destroyed buildings, sounds of cannons and gunfire going off, nothing but destruction. Suddenly, fighter jets come from behind the ship, passing over them to the destruction. Out of nowhere, one of them gets taken down by a familiar tentacle. They look at what became of Apocalypse, its new form. Its body is far more powerful, armor like that of crustaceans covers every inch of it, eight giant spider-like legs managing to support it over all the destruction, a collection of tentacles and claws on the top of its body, and under it all, its head, morphing into that of three large segments, like a claw.

"Jesus Christ," Jacob says under his breath. "How… is he standing. He weighs like the same as ten whales."

"Jacob," Dylon says, "now is not the time for joking."

"Sorry."

They judge they're close enough to deploy. They enter the lifeboats, given an added engine for speed, and prepare for the fight of a lifetime. As Piers enters his life boat, he turns to see Lisa running towards him and wrapping her arms around him. He sees how worried she looks, thinking this might be their last moments. "Don't worry," Piers says, putting her mind at ease. "I'll be back." He gives a quick kiss on her forehead before the boat begins to lower itself.

Dylon and Jacob are lowered down with Ruven. As they are, Deborah, Sen, and Alex look down upon them. Deborah extends her hand to Dylon, who grabs it for a few moments before being too low to hold on. "Please… be safe." Sen says to Jacob.

"I will," he replies.

When they finally reach the water, Jacob turns to Dylon. "If I don't make it, keep my kids the hell away from Ruven."

"Of course," he replies.

"Right here you know," Ruven adds.

"I know, making sure you know."

"... You have a good point."

As they hit the water, Dylon begins to feel an ache in his chest. He places his hand over the area and tries to ease it. "Hey," Jacob asks, "you look a little woozy."

"It's nothing," Dylon replies, "I'm… fine."

The boat speeds off towards the destruction, leaving the safety of the Crusher, praying they somehow succeed.

* * *

Death and destruction comes to all in this land. The creatures continue to spread, nearing the borders of the city, following Apocalypse's orders. Who ever they see, whether soldiers or civilians, no one is safe. B.S.A.A. soldiers line up around the city limits, acting as a barrier to stop the advancing creatures. They use anything they can. Turrets, barricades, anything they have at the moment. But the creatures continue to attack, showing no mercy, taking a soldier every minute. Some simply die, but a few meet a worse fate, becoming one of them, whether from a sting or bite that didn't kill them.

The soldiers are whittled down to a mere three dozen in one part of the barrier, it pales in comparison to the staggering number of monsters. Some even run out of bullets and are resorting to throwing their guns at the creatures. They are brought to their knees, forced to simply wait and die. However, out of nowhere, an RPG is fired off, bringing down the nearby structures, crushing the creatures as they come. The soldiers look to see Ruven and his group of Ganados, armed with shields, morning stars, stun rods, the works.

At first, a few feel they only came to kill them, but most know any help would be a blessing. The Ganados charge in screaming as they confront the creatures. With their inhuman strength and endurance, they prove far greater in close up fighting. The remaining soldiers suddenly see a familiar figure accompanying Ruven, Chris. They rush to his side in relief and confusion. "Captain Chris… it's… it's… I feel like I'm in a dream," one of them says.

"Unfortunately, this isn't a dream," Chris replies, "I can't go into detail right now, just know they're on our side."

"Yes sir," they say in unison.

"Now, take any wounded men out of the fighting. Regroup in the nearby base camps, and be ready, the fight has just begun."

They do so, relieved, but still confused, that they now have a fighting chance.

The Ganados fight on, even after losing their heads. The parasites continue to fight until they die or lose their host's body, some even after losing it. More and more soldiers reenter the fight, supporting the Ganados. A soldier in knocked down by a nearby creature. It hits the gun out of his hand and prepares to bite his head off. Suddenly, a Ganado tackles it out of the way and charges his stun rod. He hits the creature as electricity runs through it. It pulls away and attacks. The soldier grabs his gun and shoots. The Ganado looks to him for a moment. The soldier's instincts tell him to shoot, but orders were to help. The Ganado says "Gracias" and continues the charge.

Ruven charges pass them all and throws his calm attitude out the window, along with a creature into one. He hacks and slashes with both a machete and an axe, leaving each one he encounters in pieces. He soon leaves the Soldiers and Ganados in the dust, actually being too good, forcing the creatures back on his own. The Ganados cheer their General on, the soldiers… still confused as hell, but grateful.

Throughout the city, the others of group one fend off the creatures and help any remaining citizens. Leon and Helena find themselves in the industrial district, surrounded by unfinished buildings and towers. With them, a group of Ganados to assist them if they come across any survivors. Leon, given a Blacktail handgun on the Crusher, Helena, having her Hydra shotgun, primed and ready. She turns to the Ganados with them, then back to Leon. "Leon, do you think we can trust them?"

He does the same as Helena did. "Just be ready if they turn on us…," he stops at the sounds of screams. They look out into the distance to see a woman and a child in her arms, running from a goliath creature. It runs on all fours with a bulky body and a snake-like head, while accompanied by two smaller creatures, both like man flies in the air.

"Hey!" Leon shouts. "Over here!"

The woman turns and starts running towards them, along with the creatures. They begin to catch up with her. One of the flying ones dives down and tries to grab her. Leon reacts, aiming his gun and shoots instantly, hitting the creature in the head. It falls to the ground, still moving though. He aims to the large creature and fires at the legs. It stumbles for a moment, giving Helena the chance to get the woman and her child. She runs for them, getting them out of the way. As the creature comes down onto her, she aims her Hydra into its mouth and fires, forcing it back.

It gives a hideous screech before falling. One of the Ganados holds a crossbow and aims at the remaining flying creature. It flies right to him, only a few feet away before he shoots and ducks down. The creature goes tumbling onto the ground, landing into a ditch. The other Ganados come down to kill it. The woman begins to hug Helena, saying "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"Don't worry," she replies, "you're safe. "

A few of the Ganados come over with Leon who sees if she's alright. Afterwards, he looks to the Ganados.

He says " _Llevala a un lugar seguro_."

"Si" one of the Ganados reply.

She follows them, hesitantly, but thankful to be safe. Helena and Leon continue to search for survivors, anyone in danger.

Somewhere else in the city, Piers and Chris continue to fight the creatures. Each one more dangerous than the last. They, along with a mix of soldiers and Ganados, come upon a devastated section of the city. The ground upturned and cracks leading down to the sewers raised up into the air. "Stay on guard," Chris says. "Something could be hiding out here."

He and Piers tread cautiously over the giant cracks, awaiting an ambush each minute. It was as quiet as a battlefield could be. Suddenly ,the sound of rocks moving causes everyone to aim at the direction they heard it. They see it only to be one of the soldiers having tripped and chipped the edge of the cracks off. "Stay focused, we don't know when…," Piers starts, only to be jumped by a claw from the ground.

It shoots up and knocks him and Chris back. The soldiers take aim and shoot at the creature's claw. It comes back and snatches Piers by the leg, starting to swing him around. "DON'T SHOOT!" screams Chris, "YOU MIGHT HIT PIERS."

He jumps for him and grabs him by the hands, trying to get him free from the creature's grasp. They are swung side to side, until Chris falls towards the ground. Some of the soldiers manage to catch him in time, softening the impact. Piers, on the other hand, is dragged down into the tunnel below them. He hits the ground with a thud. He looks up to see a blob-like creature, clinging to the walls with its small, spider-like legs. Its mouth is ringed with rows of thorn-like teeth. It begins to drag Piers closer and closer. In desperation, Piers lets out his hand, mutating into its trident-like form, and shoots out a stream of electricity. The creature screams in pain, flinging Piers out farther into the tunnel.

The impact knocks him out, allowing the creature to get close. It begins to crawl awkwardly towards him, extending its arm to try and grab him. Suddenly, someone jumps in between them and manages to grab Piers and jump out of the tunnel. As Piers begins to awaken, he hears Chris shouting "FIRE!", followed by gunshots. He looks up to see Lisa, having saved him again. "Lisa," he says with a groan, "I thought I told you to stay on the ship."

"Piers in trouble… I help… like always."

"It's funny, I always thought you would need the saving from time to time. But that went out the window."

She gives him a kiss on the cheek and giggles. Chris comes to their side. "Piers, you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But what about Lisa?"

He looks to her for a moment. "I'm not sure how you got here, but thanks. Think you could help find survivors?"

She gives an excited nod. "Alright," he turns to Piers. "Piers, you, Lisa, and some of the men, go out and find any survivors."

Piers stands back up. Chris hands him his gun. "Yes sir."

It's been over an hour. But in a fight like this, it feels like an eternity. No sign of either side gaining the advantage. Apocalypse continues to stare down, watching over everything that's happening. This brings the thought, if they somehow stop all the creatures, how will they stop it in the end?


	27. The Agents

Near the outskirts of the city, Hunter surveys the entire city, near the top of one of the tallest towers he could find. He looks towards the ground and finds a group of people running from dog-like creatures. Their giant maws visible, even from a distance. Before preparing, he removes the bandages around his face to reveal reptilian scales and an eye like that of a serpents. He primes his sniper and prepares to fire. Unknown to him, a small creature lurks around the corner. Spider-like in shape, it slowly moves closer and closer to him. Hunter makes the first few shots, missing none of them and hitting the creatures dead center in the single eye on each of their heads. The creature crawls up a portion of the tower, now looming over him. It jumps for his head. Suddenly, he turns on a dime and raises his gun, hitting the creature in mid jump and fires. The blast eviscerates the creature, sending chunks here and there. Hunter sets up again and in a moment fires again, needing not to adjust and hits the last creature removes a walkie talkie from his belt buckle and speaks into it. "Scott, do you copy, over?"

He lets static play before getting a response. "Scott here, over."

"Are you in position?"

"Sorry, what was that, over?"

"Are you in position… over?"

"Copy that, over."

Hunter aims his sight far off in the distance. He sees Scott, standing on the top of a building, a walkie talkie visible in his hands.

"Do you see the spy twins… over?" Hunter asks.

"No, no yet, but… wait… I see them." Scott replies.

"Sorry, I can't hear you, over." Hunter says sarcastically.

"OVER!"

Hunter looks out to where Scott in pointing to. What he sees is a mass of creatures, climbing up a building about three blocks away from Scott's position. On the top, he finds Ryan, Agent, and Ada, fending them off. "Okay," he replies, "I'll find a vehicle and meet you there… over."

"Roger roger." Scott replies.

Hunter manages to snag a motorcycle and speeds off towards them. Scott, on the other hand, runs as fast as he can, never skip leg day.

The three continue to fight off the never ending army of creatures, nearly out of ammo. "Hey, Ada?" Agent asks.

"Yeah?"

"Think that grapple gun can support three people?"

"Not sure, never really cared to try."

Suddenly, Agent grabs her grapple gun from her belt and holds onto her. "Best time for anything." Before she could reply, he jumps off the roof, followed by Ryan, grabbing his legs, and shoots the hook. It latches onto the next building over, holding out only for a few seconds. It snaps, causing them to fall towards the ground. Before anything, he manages to aim for a window and crashes through it, saving them. They regain their balance and look to each other, "Well that went well."

"Well," Ada starts, "try ruining my favorite toy."

"Sorry. Now, which way?"

Before they knew it, the creatures begin jumping for them from the other building. "Let's go!" Ada shouts.

They find themselves running through an office building. The creatures knock down cubicle after cubicle after them. With no ammo, all they can do is run. They find the emergency stairs and block the door behind them. The creatures tackle it, trying to open it. Thankfully, to no success. After a while they stop, allowing the group to take a breather.

Scott continues to move closer and closer to the building, although, not running anymore. He stops by a light pole to take a breather. Suddenly, he notices several creatures, stalking him. He gets his second wind and runs in high gear as they chase him. He looks back and fires, however, unable to focus to hit them. He sees a van in the distance and runs for it. He makes it, opens the back doors, and locks himself in. The creatures come and begin attacking, tearing at the metal. The attack lasts about a minute before they break through, however, when they look inside, he's gone. They left the sight to search for him. Unknown to them, he hid out inside one of the seats, cutting out the foam and support.

He lets out a sigh of relief. He continues his search, but when he finds the building, the creatures had vanished. He begins to think of the worse case scenario. Suddenly, he sees one creature on the roof, jumping over into the next building over through a window. He immediately runs into the building and begins searching.

In the stairs, the group moves as quietly as they can, hoping to find no creature in with them. As they do, Ada and Agent have a conversation. "So," Ada asks, "where are you from?"

"I use to be a free agent, working for whoever paid me."

"Interesting, so what happened?"

"I ran into this guy," he points to Ryan. "I was on an infiltration mission inside one of Entity's many laboratories. All I was told was to retrieve a vial of one of their experimental viruses. Coincidentally, he was after the same thing. At first I thought he was a nuisance, but it's hard to keep that thought when he's skilled enough to swipe something from you right in front of you. By the way, turn around."

Ada turns to find Ryan, having snagged her crossbow out of her hands. She yanks it from him. "Clever, continue."

Agent did so. "After a while, we decided to work together 'unconditionally.'"

"What does that mean?"

"It was more of us running into each other and helping one another. After some time, he trusted me enough to show me his team."

"Never trust an agent."

"That's the thing, someone as skilled as him trusted me. He was either really dumb, or knew I wouldn't do anything. If anything, it's like he read my mind. So after a while, we became full-time partners, along with Andrew."

"Andrew?"

"Another guy like him, but more by the book about no trust."

They finally reach the bottom floor. Before they open the door, the creatures are heard behind it and sense them. They start tackling the door. In an instant, the group blocks it, pushing with all their strength to stop it from opening. The tackling immediately stops. At first, they thought they left for something else, but the tackling continued. They're caught of guard and pushed away. They aim their weapons out, only to see Scott screaming "WHOA WHOA, STOP, IT'S ME!"

"Jesus Scott," Agent says, "don't do that. Why were you tackling the door?"

"It was stuck, but those first few weren't me."

He steps away to show the dead creatures. "Now, let's get the hell out of here."

As they run out of the building, Hunter finally arrives. "Need a lift?"

"That's nice," Ada says, "but we need more than a motorcycle."

"Right. Scott?" Hunter turns to Scott, who immediately leaves.

"Where's he going?" she asks.

"Give it a minute." Agent replies.

The next minute, he come back from around the corner with an assault vehicle.

"Wait, it was parked here?" Agent starts. "Why did you take your time?"

"I had to walk. It was here from the start."

"Well that wasted time. Let's go."

Everyone hops in and drive off out of the city. Ryan, Scott, and Agent sat in the back. Ada sat up front with Hunter, who was driving. "So," she starts, "where to?"

"Out of the city. But we'll be back to help the others."

"Others? Wait, is Leon here?"

"Yes."

She gives off a sigh. "That man would do anything to help others."

"You two have a thing."

"What's it to you."

"He spoke a lot about you when we asked."


	28. Apocalypse

In the center of the city, where Apocalypse watches over, Dylon and Jacob hide from sight as they get closer. Neither of them know what would happen or what to do. They are confronting a creature of unimaginable proportions and power. Even with their strength combined, it might not be enough. Dylon stares down at his feet, thinking of the horror Apocalypse could do if he succeeds. The death, destruction, horror, no one would be spared. He could kill all life on earth.

"Dylon?" Jacob says, snapping him out of it. "Wake up, you're starting to sweat."

Dylon looks to him for a moment. He swipes his hand over his forehead and finds large amounts of sweat coming off. "I'm fine… just…," he couldn't finish.

"Look, I know this looks hopeless, but we have to try. Come on, you're the serious one."

"Your… your right. Let's go."

The brothers race to the tallest building closest to Apocalypse. They aren't sure if it would notice them if they tried to climb it, but it's better not to take risks at a moment like this. Every living thing around it was gone, either replaced by nothing or its nightmarish creations. They wander the streets around it, searching for humans constantly, and a meal. Dylon and Jacob manage to stay out of sight by hiding in every dark corner, moving when the time was right.

Suddenly, Dylon stops in the middle of an ally, stunned by an unknown force. He places his hand over his chest, breathing heavily. Jacob rushes to his side and brings him into the shadows before anything saw them. "Dylon," he says, extremely worried, "what's wrong, are you wounded, answer me?!"

Try as he might, Dylon wouldn't respond. Jacob sees his eyes are closed and opens them. He sees them moving haphazardly, looking side to side. As soon as he sees it, they stops. "Jacob," Dylon finally replies, "what are you doing?"

"Dylon, I swear to god, if you lie to me, I'll… I'll… just tell me, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I just… need a moment."

They wait for a few minutes, Dylon takes in slow and calm breaths of air. Jacob sits impatiently, but is willing to wait. "Alright," Dylon finally says. "Let's go."

They continue their normal pace, evading sight, sticking to the shadows, momentarily off the ground against the walls, each movement was perfectly executed.

They finally make it to the tallest building near Apocalypse. It stand right next to one of its many legs. "Perfect," Dylon whispers, "let's go."

"You already said that." Jacob says.

"Does it matter?"

"... Maybe?"

"Jacob."

"Right, focus, but I hope you can do the same."

Dylon stops for a moment and asks "Jacob, what exactly did you see?"

"You were in some trance, blocking out the world, like some kind of nightmare. Wait, do you remember seeing anything?"

"Seeing…," Dylon suddenly freezes again. Through his eyes, he sees his life, his family, his friends. At first, everything was peaceful, no worries in the world. Then… the darkness. The clouds turn black, like the eyes of the undead. Dylon feels he's being pulled away from his loved ones. Try as he might, he only feels the pull grow stronger. Soon, they are only visible as specks of dust. Then… he awakens. He sees Jacob slapping him back and forth. "Stop, STOP, I'm awake," Dylon blurts out between slaps.

"Dylon," Jacob says, far more concerned than before. "What… is… wrong?!"

"Nothing, I won't let it…"

"It's not that… you started lashing out with or teeth. Biting at the air. I had to drag you inside before they heard you."

Dylon was confused for a moment. He looks around and sees they are inside, already at the halfway mark in the middle of the buildings large number of floors. "Jacob… I… I… I don't know… what's going on?!"

"Dylon, easy, easy, just breath."

Dylon begins to breath slowly again, although, struggling to calm his mind. Moments before, he was confused by Jacobs sudden worrying. Now, he feels as though on the edge of a cliff on Mt. Everest. Jacob gives a quick sigh before getting his attention. "Look, you can wait in here, I'll go."

"Jacob… you can't… not without me."

"At this rate, you can get us both killed. Just stay her and breath."

"I won't let you go without me."

Jacob gives another sigh before giving his brother a hug. Dylon thinks he's trying to calm him, but then comes the sharp pain in his back. He pulls away and reaches for the spot to find one of Jacob's quills, dripping with some form of fluid. "Sorry," Jacob says' "it's for your own good."

Dylon becomes light headed, struggling to stand. Within moments, he collapses, out cold. Jacob brings him to the deepest corners of the building to let him rest. "I'm sorry, but if you die, I would never forgive myself for letting you do this. Whatever is happening, well… uh… just get better."

Jacob races up the stairs of the building, near the brink of simply flying up to the top. In his mind, he questions what he's done and is about to do. Feeling both guilt and terror, it's a wonder how he can still think straight. He reaches the top in mere seconds, however, he stops in the shock of his life at who he sees waiting, Ruven. "Ruven, what… what the hell are you doing here?!"

"You think I would let you have all the fun?"

"No, I mean yes, I mean… shouldn't you be helping the others?"

"Would you believe me if I said my help was overkill? Besides, you'll need a fill in for Dylon. What's wrong with him anyway?"  
"I don't know, he just… he looked like he was gonna cry."

"Really?! Hu, I guess everyone has a limit, even him."

"Yeah it was weird. I mean he was sweating and… that doesn't matter now, let's go."

"He already said that."

"Funny."

Without a second thought, they jump onto the leg, only ten feet away. They cling on to small chinks in the armor. They use them to climb to the top of Apocalypse, moving at a steady pace. It takes them nearly fifteen minutes to reach the top. They stand on, what felt like, meat clinging onto itself haphazardly. "Okay," Ruven says, "what now?"

"Now we… uh… god damn it, I wish Dylon was here."

Farther towards the center of Apocalypse, Ruven notices something. "Hey, what about those?"

Jacob looks to where Ruven was pointing and sees small, yellow, glowing orbs littered all around the "ground". "You think those are weak spots?" Ruven asks.

"It's worth a shot."

They run to the strange orbs and begin destroying them. From below, the monster sized eyes of Apocalypse move to look towards the top of its body. As Ruven and Jacob continue smashing, Apocalypse lets out a deafening roar for a few moments. At first, Ruven and Jacob think it was nothing, until the "ground" started to move irregularly. Small growths begin to arise from it, changing into humanoid shapes. The bodies of these creatures are thin, but strong, along with having a mouth full of teeth. They swarm over the two, stopping them from destroying the orbs.

Ruven begins to be dog piled by them, somehow overpowering him. However, seconds later, he ruptures out of the pile, flinging their bodies off, a few flying off Apocalypse. With his machete, he starts to hack them to pieces. In mere minutes, he turns them into piles of limbs. Suddenly, the limbs begin to reform, connecting to each other. The creatures regenerate and continue to attack. "You gotta be kidding me." Ruven muttera.

Jacob moves between the creatures at breakneck speed, knocking them down one by one. He bites some heads off, rip bodies to pieces, ragdoll a few of them, in short, he goes all out. Suddenly, the creatures recede back into Apocalypse, leaving two of them. The remaining two begin to grow in mass, becoming larger, stronger, and strangely familiar. They change

into imperfect copies of them. The Jacob clone against Ruven, the Ruven clone against Jacob.

The R clone attacks with immense power, keeping Jacob on his toes. One of its attacks lands straight into Jacob's side and flings him away. He digs his claws into the ground to stop himself, only to be met by a swift kick from the R clone. The J clone climbs onto Ruven, clawing at him relentlessly. Try as he might, the clone is too much like the real Jacob and dodges each of his grabs. It crawls to his feet and digs giant claws into them, causing Ruven to tumble. As he does, the floor begins to form into tentacles, latching onto him and slowly pulling him towards the edge. The J clone leaves him and goes for Jacob.

As he fights the R clone, he goes ballistic, showing his teeth and attacking like an animal. He latches onto the clones head and rips it off. He then proceeds to toss the body off the edge. The J clone charges at him ,only to be dodged and grabbed by the legs. Jacob begins spinning, and spinning, and spinning, until he lets go, throwing the clone off. At that moment, he sees Ruven being pulled off of Apocalypse. He races to save him ,but it's too late. Ruven falls to the ground with a scream in defiance. It was now up to Jacob.

As he turned back ,the floor sprouts with more clones, ready to fight. Jacob becomes exhausted, huffing and puffing. The high altitude wasn't helping a lick. Along with the clones, more tentacles appear. It all edges forward, surrounding him, herding him off of Apocalypse. Ruven can survive the fall, but Jacob couldn't. All seemed lost, no more hope, just death. Then… it happened.

From the building, a roar of anger and force appears. It was so loud. Every window on the building shattered, and some from the surrounding buildings. The structure begins to fall apart. Strange limbs sprout from it. All Jacob could think was "...Dylon?"


	29. Power

Dylon lies in the deepest, darkest part of the building, quiet, alone, helpless. He seems calm, but inside his mind, he fought for his sanity. The world he saw was nothing but darkness, the dead ruled and the living suffered. It's as if the world hung from a noose, getting tighter and tighter, yet not enough to kill the entire thing. He stands in the center of it all, trapped and unable to do anything, except to watch it all die. Tears ran down his eyes, nothing felt right, only pain ruled. Just as it seemed it couldn't get worse, it does.

He hears Deborah's calls for help in the distance. He shoots up and sees her and the children, now only a few feet away. He stretches down his hands to get them. Suddenly, the ground under them gives out. They fall into what looks like a bottomless pit, only to be revealed as the gaping maw of Apocalypse. He devours them, crunches their bodies to nothing. Dylon was in shock, his mind soon perished, his will broken.

On the outside, it was silent. Until his body shoots up and he lets out a haunting scream of pain. His eyes turn bloodshot red. He holds his fist so tight that his nails dig into his palms and cause them to bleed. The body arches back and forth, mutating. Limbs sprout around him, his body being destroyed and reformed, growing in size. Everything around him gives out, nothing could support his new body. It happens, he breaks out of the entire structure, destroying it, bringing it down to the ground. The dust clears and what's left is him. His body reaches unimaginable size, near that of Apocalypse. Wings, light that of bats, shot out of his back. His new tail, scaled and spiked, looks deadly on its own. His head elongates and grows massive horns. A single eye, showing great anger, sat on top of his head. In so many ways, he became a powerful dragon-like creature. His limits have been reached.

All around him, everyone could see for what he has become. The creatures themselves even stop and look on at the monster before them. The entire fight comes to a stand still, until his anger is let loose. He charges at Apocalypse's head, digging his teeth and claws into it. Apocalypse lets out a deafening scream of pain as the force of impact flings its body to one side. It uses its legs to stab at Dylon, but to no avail. It faces a creature, brought out by pain and dread, wanting nothing more than to kill it.

He tackles Apocalypse again, forcing it towards the ocean away from the city. Deep down, Dylon still has some control. On the top, Jacob takes the chance and jumps onto Dylon, landing on his tail. On it, he sees an eye before him. At first he's shocked, but then sees it and the tail moving him away. It places him on the ground and shoots back at Apocalypse, skewering it. "Dylon," he mutters quietly.

Back at the Crusher, Deborah sits in her bunk with her children. Suddenly, she feels a powerful force in her. Her children look at her. Maya come up saying "is Daddy alright?"

At that moment, she knows something was wrong, and her children feel it too. Dimitri, sleeping on the bed, begins to wake up and cry. Deborah picks him up and tries to comfort him. "Shh shh, it's okay, mommy's here."

A Ganado hears the commotion and comes by the room. Deborah turns to him. "Tell them to turn the ship around. Something's wrong."

Without hesitating, he leaves to tell the captain to turn the ship around.

In the sky, storm clouds begin to gather, growing larger and larger, somehow following them. Alex comes to Deborah at that moment. "What are you doing? We can't fight."

"It's not that, it's Dylon. Something's wrong."

"I don't understand, what do you…"

Deborah stops her. "Quiet, just… can you feel that?"

Alex was silent, trying to feel out what Deborah feels. It soon comes to her. "I… don't… understand. What is this?"

"I can't say for certain, but Dylon needs us."

"Daddy in trouble?" Maya asks.

"...I hope not." Deborah replies.

The conflict escalates, growing more and more destructive. Dylon has managed to drag Apocalypse back into the water before losing his grip. In that moment, Apocalypse bites back. Dylon tries to dodge, but is unsuccessful. Apocalypse planned to clamp onto his throat, instead, biting onto his arm. Dylon roars in pain, the cries stretching for miles. The bite nearly severs his arm. In desperation, he pulls away, enlarging the wound to the point of severing his arm. He manages to use his tail and digs it into the giant eye of Apocalypse.

As he pulls it away, the gash causes the eye to collapse on itself. What's left is an empty socket. Apocalypse attempts to regenerate, only to have Dylon dig his working hand into his mouth. He grabs onto something inside his mouth and forcefully starts ripping it out. He doesn't attempt to pull it out, instead, he eviscerated Apocalypse, tearing its body in half, causing most of its inside to fall to the water. What he grips is a strange, tumor riddled organ. Apocalypse, still breathing, goes ballistic and thrusts all his legs into Dylon's stomach. They tear at the flesh, doing the same to him as he did to it moments ago. However, this would be a different outcome.

With his body beyond the point of healing, Dylon suddenly begins to change. The creature he became begins to dissolve, reverting to a sickly green state before dissolving. In all this mess, his body is seen, encased in a cocoon like substance. His body is released and falls to the ground, landing in the water. As for Apocalypse, it writhes in pain, having used every ounce of its strength to destroy Dylon's mutated form. The gases produced by the dissolving mass of flesh hides the ending of this conflict. Everyone inside the city stare on, awaiting to see the outcome.

In the distance, the Crusher can be seen, trailed by storm clouds, which now hover over the entire city. However, as Deborah stands on the deck, she gives no care to them, only wanting to see Dylon safe. The Crusher comes closer, and closer, now only a hundred feet away. Suddenly, Deborah sees Dylon, floating in the water. She screams for the Ganados to pull him aboard, which they did. He lays on the deck, badly injured, but alive. Deborah kneels next to him, holding Dimitri in her arms as he cries. Dylon wakes up and hears his cries. He looks up to see Deborah was crying too. He struggles to raise his hand to wipe away the tears.

The clouds soon start to pour. The rain soaks everything it hit. Dylon turns his focus to Dimitri. "Hey… it's alright… Daddy is… okay."

Dimitri continues to cry. Dylon hopes he could calm down. Suddenly, he notices Deborah staring towards the shore. He struggles to turn and now shares her terror. Apocalypse lives, barely, dragging what's left of its body towards them. The tumoral organ Dylon ripped out into the open hung on. It has only a single leg dragging its still titanic form. The Ganados give it all they could, using the cannons, turrets, everything. But, none of it slowed it down. Dimitri opens his eyes and sees the creature before them. Now raising his claw to strike them down. Suddenly, Dimitri, with all the small in his small body, he let out the loudest cry he could, and in an instant, it comes. The clouds shoot down an enormous lightning bolt, striking down upon Apocalypse's hanging organ. Its body surges with static as it lets out a deafening cry. Parts of it body begin to collapse, all before it finally succumbs to its wounds.

It now lays motionless, all that's left of a global threat now lies dead in the water. Moments later, the clouds dissipate. Dimitri stops crying, and Dylon and Deborah look upon him in shock. Everyone in the city saw what happened. With Chris' team, Piers and Lisa rejoined. He turns to Piers. "Long shot but… did you do that."

"Good guess, but no. I could never do that."

"Then what, or who, did?"

* * *

Dylon lies in bed in one of the ship's rooms. Deborah sits next to him in peace. Their children huddled around them, happy to see their father is alright. Raph comes up to him. "DADDY, DADDY, WHAT HAPPENED?! THE MONSTER GO BOOM!"

Maya joins in. "YEAH, Daddy make the monster go, POW, POW, BOOM."

Theo stares at him, hoping to hear a response. And Dimitri falls asleep, as if he was out of energy. Deborah looks to him in her arms, then to Dylon. He gives her a look that said "We'll figure this out later."

All his muscles ache, even blinking was a challenge. But, he's glad to finally be able to rest. In the city, the commotion is over. All the creatures lay dead, without a master, they're just piles of meat. Now comes the part which everyone feared for, the truth, no more fighting, no more conflict, now comes the truth.

* * *

It has been a few months now, the events that unfolded because of this were uncertain at first. But now it's all clear, with no worries. Entity has been placed on the government's top priority list, thousands of illegal and world threatening experiments have been stopped. However, Verden and a handful of scientists have escaped, reduced to the same place as Umbrella was, but there's no telling what resources they still keep. As for Dylon, his life has changed for the better. He may have lost the secluded life from before, but he finds his new one more pleasant. His island and the parts of Rural Europe Jacob and the Ganados call home are considered separate from any country, treated as unauthorized restricted territory, to be well left alone. However, a small branch of the B.S.A.A. has been set on the island, Piers' team. Jacob has been greeted to the joy of parenthood. Sen gave birth to three healthy babies, two boys and a girl. One of which bears a strong resemblance to Jacob.

Ada, expectedly, escaped. Alex and her child, Veronica, do as they please, staying with Jacob and Sen as always. Gregore and Lotus continue to serve their queen, happy to do so. Piers and his whole team have been given the rank of "special ops" for the B.S.A.A. in the most significant of emergencies. For Piers and his team, all in do time will be known. Lisa stays with Piers, as always, practicing social skills on the side. Hunnigan and Helena continue their work in the government, both more ensiteful on the world after their experience. Dylon and his family are seen as no threat. The nation, nay, the world is thankful for their help. They have been given freedom.


	30. Epilogue

A month later, the movement of time has calmed, a time of peace has come. Sen, along with her children, Lapis, Armate, and Deker, look out the stone window of their room and see the beautiful land. In the distance, she could she Jacob and Ruven, returning from a surprise trip. For a few days now, they've been gone, called for a "mystery meeting" as they called it. She sees Ruven gesture for her to come and see what they brought. As they come into the village, they bring with them a large wagon of unknown contents. She brings Deker along as she comes down. When she arrives, she is greeted with a warm hug by Jacob and a greeting from Ruven.

However, she hears something from inside the wagon. A voice, so familiar. Suddenly, she sees two people, both appearing exhausted, as if from a long journey. A man, a woman, both seem so familiar. In Sen's mind, the memories race, the past comes back to her. Tears well up in her eyes, she could only mutter two names. "...Widson… Eden."

"Yes Sen, it's us." Widson says, now crying herself. She comes over and gives Sen a hug, holding the warm embrace for a few seconds. As Widson pulls away, she sees the child in her arms, looking confused. "Sen… it's... he's beautiful."

Sen couldn't find any words to describe the joy she felt. After so long, she's reunited with the first people that ever felt like a family to her. Eden comes up to her, crying also, not as much, but he feels the same. He gives her a warm embrace as well before speaking. "When we heard about what happened… we had to find out if… sorry," he pauses for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "When he heard about what happened, we raced back to the U.S. Actually, we didn't really arrive. We ran into Ruven at the halfway mark."

Ruven continues from where Eden leaves off. "Before you regrouped with us in the marshlands, Jacob said he saw them with you. After some talking… we decided to bring them here, but it was time consuming, having to wait for things to come down before we could bring them."

Sen doesn't care for what happened. All she knows is that her family is now complete. Widson and Eden kneel down and see how similar Deker was to Jacob, albeit with pink hair. They marvel that their Sen, all grown up, living a peaceful life, with the man she loves, and such caring friends.

* * *

Back on the island, Dylon and Deborah's home as been rebuilt, down to the smallest detail. In his corders, Dylon looks upon his son, Dimitri, to find some evidence of what happened. Deborah comes in with the same thought. "Well," she said. "Did Dimitri really…"

"I'm not sure," Dylon replies, "but it's possible."

"Is it really. Could he have done it?"

"It's hard to say. However, there have been such extreme cases. Still, to think he could do something like that so young."

As they ponder, Dimitri begins to make noses. Deborah and Dylon huddle around him and hear him say "Dada."

They were overjoyed. Dimitri said his first words, and at such an early age. Deborah holds him in her arms, happy to hear him say "Dada." Dylon places his arm around Deborah and holds her close. They stand there, looking down on their precious child, knowing he'll have a peaceful life.

* * *

In one final note, the island. Before now, they only saw as far as the mountains. The land they lived in was calm and easy. However, beyond the mountains, a greater land dominated. A world of unbelievable creatures, separated from them. A primeval land of creatures far beyond anyone's imagination. Entity created this land as a place of fictional creations that could be brought to life. Its size was far greater than that of Apocalypse. A land that could support true monsters, waiting to be known, or maybe, not to be, that is the question.


End file.
